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EPSTEIN FILES: Maine Gov Janet Mills Accused of Child Abuse Cover-up, Cocaine Trafficking in Newly Released SDNY Documents
The Maine WireBy The Maine WireFebruary 1, 2026Updated:February 1, 20261 Comment9 Mins Read51K Views
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Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ name has surfaced in the latest U.S. Justice Department release of files related to the late pedophile and mystery powerbroker Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly committed suicide.
The Maine Wire’s Steve Robinson, Thomas Shattuck, Graham Pollard, and Jon Fetherston all contributed to this reporting.
Maine Democrats have been calling for over a year for the release of more files related to infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but the disclosures may have caused some collateral damage for Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, candidate for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.
The sensational allegations against Gov. Mills surfaced Friday in a trove of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its ongoing disclosure of materials related to the investigation into Epstein’s sex-trafficking and espionage ring.
For years, Epstein’s role in the American and Israeli intelligence communities has mystified international audiences, stoking conspiracy theories – many of which have turned out to be true. The Epstein enigma only intensified when he was found dead in his maximum security jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, a mysterious death that was ultimately ruled a suicide.
The records related to Gov. Mills and other figures in Maine politics include a detailed tip submitted to the Southern District of New York (SDNY) following the 2020 arrest of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. An anonymous tipster alleges that Mills was “instrumental” in covering up child sexual abuse and was “credibly named” in cocaine trafficking.
The tipster appears to have a deep familiarity with Maine politics and powerful figures from Maine political history.
That includes a former Maine State Police Chief Andrew Demers, who served for 25 years and was later arrested for sexually abusing a child, and Maine’s former FBI Bureau chief, who went to jail for raping a 10-year-old girl.
Although the DOJ attempted to redact the tipster’s information, contextual clues and poorly redacted URLs point toward Lori Handrahan. Handrahan has a Ph.D., is a professor in Washington, and spent time as a child in both New Sharon and Sorrento, Maine. She’s also an author and a prominent anti-child trafficking activist.
According to Handrahan, Demers was influential in stopping child sexual exploitation investigations targeting some of Maine’s most influential figures, including former U.S. Sen. Bill Cohen (R-Maine), who served as Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton.
“Every one of the cases that [Demers] shut down, including Bill Cohen’s, related to child sex abuse should have been re-opened,” Handrahan said.
According to the email, Handrahan alleges that the FBI’s Kenoyer was protected by a judge — Donald Alexander — who also protected trial attorney Michael Waxman.
Waxman was the attorney for Igor Malenko, who had been married to Handrahan and had gained custody of their young daughter following a messy divorce.
“Maine’s current Governor Janet Mills (who grew up with me-her mother was my high school English teacher) has been instrumental in the crimes against my daughter and I and in protecting Waxman/Malenko,” Handrahan said. “She has also been credibly named as involved in cocaine trafficking.”
Handrahan declined to comment further on her allegations during a text message exchange.
The broad-ranging and conspiratorial nature of the allegations are difficult to substantiate independently; however, news archive records verify much of what Handrahan told the SDNY.
A Sept. 13, 1987 story from the LA Times reports the following: “A judge sentenced a former FBI agent to nine months in prison and two more years of house arrest for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old neighbor girl… Kennebec County Superior Court Judge Donald G. Alexander imposed the sentence Thursday on John H. Kenoyer, 65, the FBI’s former Augusta bureau chief.”
Especially by the standards of 1987, nine months in prison is a lenient sentence for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old child — a sentence reminiscent of the nine months in jail Eliot Cutler received after he pleaded guilty to possessing hundreds of thousands of images of child pornography.
Although allegations that Mills was involved in cocaine use and trafficking have lingered in Maine politics since at least the early 1990s, this is the first time she’s ever been connected to Epstein or implicated in a child sex abuse cover-up.
However, there are no other documents to substantiate the allegation that Mills engaged in the conduct described in the tip submitted to the SDNY.