Bill Gates is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday for a transcribed interview in the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist is among a number of high-profile figures whose ties to Epstein have come under scrutiny in recent months due to their names and photos appearing in the files related to Epstein’s case that have been released by the Justice Department.
And he joins a list of prominent people who have been called on to appear before the House Oversight Committee as the panel conducts its inquiry into the case, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Someone’s name or photo appearing in the so-called “Epstein files” is not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing, and Gates has denied having any knowledge of the crimes committed by the disgraced financier. In a statement to media outlets in April, a spokesperson for Gates said that the tech billionaire “welcomes the opportunity to appear before the Committee.”
“While he never witnessed or participated in any of Epstein’s illegal conduct, he is looking forward to answering all the committee’s questions to support their important work,” the spokesperson said.
Here’s what we know about Gates’ relationship with Epstein.
Gates and Epstein met for the first time in 2011
Gates met Epstein in person for the first time on Jan. 31, 2011, as The New York Times reported in 2019, citing documents and people familiar. Gates himself has acknowledged that he first met Epstein in 2011. That initial meeting, which took place at Epstein’s home on the Upper East Side in New York, occurred three years after the disgraced financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
An email dated Dec. 2, 2010, that has been released by the Justice Department indicates that Gates was meant to meet Epstein weeks earlier, but the plan fell through.
“After talking with Melinda I have decided to leave New York City after the Pete Peterson meeting. So this means I won’t have time to do another meeting and I won’t be able to do the dinner with Jeff Epstein,” Gates wrote in the email. He went on to say, “I was looking forward to the dinner. Nathan had agreed with you that I would enjoy meeting with him and that it is a fine thing to do so on another trip I will try and do it.”
The two men were in contact until 2014
Documents released by the Justice Department, as well as news reports, indicate that Gates and Epstein met and communicated from 2011 to 2014. In one email exchange released by the Justice Department, dated Dec. 31, 2013 and Jan. 5, 2014, the two appear to be discussing a bet they had made about whether the euro would be the currency that performed the best in 2013. In another, dated August 2013, they seem to be coordinating plans to meet up for dinner in New York City.
In an interview with 9News in February, Gates said that his interactions with Epstein were regarding philanthropic matters.
“The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health,” Gates told the Australian news outlet. “In retrospect, that was a dead end and I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.”
The Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organization Gates co-founded along with his now ex-wife and for which he serves as chair, released a statement about its staff’s encounters with Epstein in February amid the renewed attention on Gates’ past relationship with the disgraced financier.
“On the basis of Epstein’s claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health and development, a small number of foundation employees interacted with Epstein to try to secure this potential funding,” the Gates Foundation said. “Ultimately, the foundation did not pursue any collaboration with Epstein and no fund was ever created. At no time were financial payments made by the foundation to Epstein, nor was he employed by the foundation at any time.”
“The harm Epstein inflicted on women and girls was horrific, and no one should ever have to experience what they did. The safety and wellbeing of women and girls is core to the foundation’s mission of helping every person live a healthy and productive life, which we remain fully committed to,” the organization continued. “The foundation regrets having any employees interact with Epstein in any way.”
The foundation announced in April that its chief executive officer, Mark Suzman, had “commissioned an external review to assess past foundation engagement with Epstein,” as well as current policies for evaluating philanthropic partnerships, in March. The foundation said at the time that it anticipated that the foundation’s board and management would be given an update on the investigation this summer.
The Epstein files include allegations about Gates
Among the documents released by the Justice Department are several emails that Epstein seems to have sent to himself in July 2013 that appear to be messages intended for Gates. It is not known if Epstein wrote those messages himself.
“I cannot believe that you have chosen to disregard our friendship developed of over the last 6 years,” reads one of the emails, which begins “dear bill.” Later in the message, the writer appears to indicate that Gates wished to secretly give his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, medication to treat an STI that the writer claims Gates had contracted, saying “you them implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std,” and referencing “your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your penis.”
In another email, the writer says that they have decided to resign their position with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and BG3, a think tank Gates founded that has since been renamed Gates Ventures.
“During the past few weeks I have been caught up in a severe marital dispute between Melinda and Bill,” the message reads. “In my role as his right hand I had been asked on mulitple occassion and in hindsight , wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate , to the ethically unsound and had been repeatedly asked to do other things that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal.”
“From helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls , to facilictating his illicit trysts, with married women, to being asked to provide adderall fro bridge tournamnts,” it continues.
Gates has denied all of these allegations.
“Apaprently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent. The email is false,” Gates told 9News. “I don’t know what his thinking was there. It just reminds me, every minute I spent with him I regret and I apologize that I did that.”
The Gates Foundation has also denied the allegations about Gates in these emails.
“These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false,” a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation said in a statement to news outlets in February. “The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”
Gates apologized for his ties to Epstein in a Gates Foundation town hall
The Gates Foundation held a town hall in February, in which Gates admitted to having two affairs with Russian women, as the emails released by the Justice Department allude to. But he said that he “never spent any time with victims, the women around [Epstein],” The Wall Street Journal reported. Gates also said that “it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein.”
“I did nothing illicit,” he said, according to a recording of the town hall that the Journal gained access to. “I saw nothing illicit.”
Melinda French Gates said the allegations against her ex-husband filled her with “unbelievable sadness”
French Gates reacted to her ex-husband being named in the Epstein files in an interview with NPR’s Wild Card podcast in February.
“For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,” she said.
French Gates went on to say that the allegations about her ex-husband in the Epstein files made her feel “unbelievable sadness.”
The Journal reported in 2021 that Gates’ connection to Epstein caused tension between the now ex-couple before they ultimately split. French Gates apparently began raising concerns about Gates’ association with Epstein in 2013, according to the Journal.
The post Bill Gates Is Set to Give an Interview in the House Epstein Probe. Here’s What to Know About His Ties to Epstein appeared first on TIME.
