Towson University SGA calls for investigation into university system regent named in Epstein files

By D’Mari Dreher-Smith, Sports Editor

Towson University’s Student Government Association passed a resolution calling for a formal investigation into the relationship between University System of Maryland Regent Charles “Tom” McMillen and sex offender Jeffery Epstein.

Fourteen of 15 SGA senators voted in favor of the resolution with one abstaining during the SGA’s general assembly March 24 meeting. The writer of the bill, Vice President Liam Brinton, thinks punitive action is necessary.

“We have the right to demand people be accountable, especially when they make decisions in our everyday lives,” Brinton said.

McMillen, a former professional basketball player and member of Congress, sits on the Maryland university system’s board, which oversees 12 member institutions, including Towson. He appears at least twice in the Epstein files. 

On Feb. 27, 2013, Epstein emailed McMillen asking when he will be in New York. McMillen responded to the email that same day.

“I just got back from Costa Rica and heading to Cabo in a week so it may be late March. Hope you are well,” McMillen’s email to Epstein read. 

McMillen said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun that his email to Epstein was “kind of a blow-off” because he was “aware of his criminality at that point.”

In another email, a redacted sender emails Epstein on Jan. 22, 2013, and references McMillen.

“Hi Jeffrey, I saw Tom McMillen last night and he asked about you – said he lost touch,” the email reads.

The emails in the Epstein files occur post Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting a minor for prostitution, making him a registered sexual offender at the time, and post McMillen’s 2007 appointment to the USM Board of Regents. Epstein also contributed $3,000 to McMillen’s campaigns for office in the 1990s.

In a resurfaced 1992 video, McMillen is seen socializing with President Donald Trump and Epstein. His name also appeared in Epstein’s “black book” full of contacts twice. He’s also referenced in Epstein’s private plane flight log for a Jan 29, 1993 flight.

When asked about the files, McMillen denied a relationship with Epstein on the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” McMillen claimed that he “barely knew” Epstein and didn’t have “any relationship with him since the early 90s,” downplaying any relationship or contact. 

The SGA’s resolution, presented by Senator Kyle Hastings on behalf of the president and vice president, said that McMillen’s claims about his relationship with Epstein “contrast with the evidence that has come out.” 

The University System of Maryland did not reply to requests for comment in time for publication. 

Towson isn’t the only USM school’s SGA that passed legislation about McMillen.

In March, the University of Maryland’s SGA passed a resolution demanding McMillen resign. McMillen responded to the SGA’s resolution in a letter addressed to the board of regents and UMD’s SGA, saying the allegations were “unfounded and biased.”

“They are based on limited, decades-old, and tangential interactions that have been taken out of context, amplified into something they are not, and distorted to fit a narrative,” McMillen wrote in the letter.

Towson’s SGA’s resolution says that the USM Board of Regents should be held to a high standard of accountability and ethics, and that SGA has a vested interest in these standards because of USM’s responsibility to oversee Towson. 

“We’ve seen a lot of people get away with things,” said Brinton. “We have this notion, not just in Maryland but in this country, that power shields you from accountability.”

Towson did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.