Dem governor’s buried cocaine investigation docs hit with official inquiry as questions swirl over Senate run
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More than three decades after Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills avoided releasing approximately 6,000 pages of case files pertaining to the federal investigation into her alleged cocaine use, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is seeking those very documents.
The NRSC submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in April 2025, attempting to release the files relating to her suspected cocaine use trial amid suspicion that Democrats were recruiting her to jump into the state’s Senate race.
While NARA initially told the NRSC they would review the request, they later claimed 3,000 pages of the files were under FOIA exemption, which preserves the secrecy of grand jury testimony.
The NRSC is now appealing the denial of those records, citing public interest in the case. Fox News Digital first reported last month on the newly unearthed memo that contradicts Mills’ claim that an investigation into her alleged cocaine use was politically motivated.
MAINE’S DEM GOVERNOR LAUGHS OFF QUESTIONS WHEN CONFRONTED ABOUT ALLEGED PAST COCAINE USE
Fox News Digital has learned that approximately 3,195 documents that did not fall under the FOIA exemption required a wait time of 11 years to process.
However, in 1992, Mills submitted her own FOIA request for the same documents.
A newspaper article from the Ellsworth American reported that Mills got a response that NARA was “too busy” to process her request at the time.
When asked if she would make the documents publicly available if she received them, Mills told the outlet, “I’d first have to see what was in it.”
Fox News Digital has not found a record of Mills releasing those documents, and Fox News Digital reached out to Mills’s office but did not receive a response.
In early 1990, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maine, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Maine’s Bureau of Intergovernmental Drug Enforcement (BIDE) investigated Mills, then a sitting district attorney in Maine, after a drug suspect accused her of using cocaine.
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The investigation was eventually dropped without charges being filed. Mills has maintained that the investigation never had any merit and that she was politically targeted for her Democratic affiliation and criticism of BIDE. In 1990, she and two other district attorneys in Maine criticized BIDE for inflating arrest numbers through excessive enforcement of low-level drug offenders.
“It’s scary,” Mills told the Portland Press Herald in November 1991. “Maine apparently has a secret police force at work that can ruin the reputation of any who opposes it.”
A March 1995 memorandum from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility addressed to the deputy attorney general – Merrick Garland was serving as the principal associate deputy attorney general – and unearthed by Fox News Digital, refutes Mills’ claim. It revealed that there was no misconduct by federal or state authorities investigating her case.
According to the DOJ memo, WCSH-TV reported in December 1990 that Mills was being investigated by a federal grand jury for drug use, citing law enforcement sources. Mills later sued that reporter for libel and slander. The report also prompted Mills’ attorney to demand a grand jury investigation, arguing that “the press received leaks from BIDE law enforcement officials.”
The results of the libel and slander suit are no longer available. The docket for the case showed that the records were disposed of in 2015 in accordance with policy. However, a 1991 Lewiston Sun-Journal article appears to state that the effort to “end drug probe rumors” was thrown out by a judge.
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Earlier this month, Mills was confronted in Washington, D.C., about her alleged cocaine use, Fox News Digital exclusively reported, in an exchange where she said, “What the f—?” when asked if “sniffing cocaine at work” is a “human right.”
Longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election in 2026, and with Mills’ governorship term limited next year, she would be a competitive Democratic candidate to challenge Collins.
Mills indicated in April that she did not “plan to run for another office,” but admitted that “things change week to week, month to month,” leaving the door open to a potential Senate bid.