Bill Gates told members of Congress that Jeffrey Epstein used the billionaire philanthropist to “rehabilitate his reputation” and admits he “should never have met” him in the first place.
In Wednesday’s closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee, the Microsoft co-founder said the wealthy and well-connected sex offender tried to leverage explicit details about his personal life, including his extramarital affairs, to coerce Gates into working with him.
Epstein “sought to build an image of legitimacy around himself, using connections to reputable and powerful people to deflect scrutiny and attempt to rehabilitate his reputation,” said Gates, according to a copy of his statement provided to The Independent.
Gates told reporters that he hopes his interview is “helpful” to the long-running investigation into the dead pedophile and his alleged ties to a network of powerful abusers.
He said he is “glad to be here voluntarily to testify to help with the committee’s work.”
“I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, important work of the committee to find justice for the victims,” he said.
Gates, among the highest-profile figures speaking to the committee, was subpoenaed for testimony after the release of millions of documents stemming from Epstein investigations raised questions about the billionaire’s ties to the late sex offender.
Documents released by the Department of Justice included calendar entries and correspondence between Gates and Epstein, who were also photographed together.
Gates has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with his abuse.
“Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, and documents obtained by the Committee, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” the committee’s Republican chair, James Comer, wrote in March.
A spokesperson for Gates told The Independent that he “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 in a statement.
In his opening remarks, Gates stressed that he “never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct.”
“I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated,” he added.
Gates explained that he first met Epstein through people he trusted in his professional and philanthropic work in 2011 — three years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida.
“I recall being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues, but I did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed,” Gates said. “I accepted the introduction without applying the scrutiny I should have.”
His interactions with Epstein were limited to a handful of meetings in 2011 and 2012 followed by “more extensive conversations” about charitable giving efforts in 2014 and 2014, according to Gates.
Gates ultimately determined that Epstein’s efforts to reel in potential donors to his foundation were a “dead-end,” he said.
“I told him we would go no further and stopped communicating or meeting with him,” Gates told the committee.
No funds were raised and “no vehicle for charitable giving was ever created,” and their interactions ended in 2014, according to Gates.
At the same time, one of Gates’s former employees “engaged” Epstein to discuss the terms of his separation from his office, which Gates “did not ask” nor “want or need” Epstein’s involvement, he said.
Epstein had also learned “sensitive information” about Gates’s personal life, “including the fact that I had been unfaithful in my marriage,” he told the committee.
“These affairs had nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family,” he added. “As the public can now see, based on what has been released in the files, Epstein was working to use information about my infidelities — in addition to many lies that he layered on top — to pressure me to re-engage with him. He was unsuccessful in this effort, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda.”
Gates said he “should never have met with Epstein in the first place.”
“Based on what I know now, I understand that even if he had delivered the new donors he promised, it would not have justified associating with him,” he added.
“I was so focused on the possibility of raising funds for global health that I allowed that goal to override my better judgment,” he said. “That is a sobering realization, and it has reinforced for me the importance of being more attentive to how access and reputation can be manipulated by people acting in bad faith.”
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi told reporters that the billionaire was “not terribly forthcoming or candid as he can be” and was “a little combative.”
“Jeffrey Epstein was aware of those affairs and he may have potentially used those affairs as some type of leverage that his friends and acquaintances of Bill Gates could have used against him,” he said. “We need to learn more.”
Democrats on the committee are pressing for information on Epstein’s apparent attempts to “get dirt on a lot of people” to use as leverage against them, Krishnamoorthi said.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters after the interview that Gates made a “horrific judgment call” by associating with Epstein.
“It’s not something I think the average person thinks that somebody should be doing, and it’s something Mr. Gates will have to atone for,” Garcia said.
Documents in the Justice Department’s so-called Epstein files include two draft emails that Epstein appeared to have written himself in 2013.
In those notes, he appears to claim that he facilitated sexual encounters for Gates and helped him obtain medication to hide a sexually transmitted infection from his wife.
Epstein appears to claim that he got medication for Gates “in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls” and “illicit trysts, with married women,” according to documents in the files.
Another draft message alleges Gates asked Epstein to delete messages referencing a sexually transmitted disease as well as explicit details about his penis.
Gates has strongly refuted the allegations.
“He denies, obviously, some of those claims, and he believes Epstein would write things to himself, and just say things that were not true,” Garcia told reporters.
Last week, the committee referred two men to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution after a survivor’s sexual assault allegations, marking the first such move after a series of interviews and congressional hearings with members of Donald Trump’s administration.
Epstein’s former assistant Lesley Groff testified on Tuesday, during which she claimed that she set up calls between her former boss and Trump, among other allegations.
Democrats on the committee have repeatedly urged testimony from the president, whose name appears thousands of times within the millions of documents released by the Justice Department. Trump socialized with Epstein throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and Epstein once described himself as the president’s “closest friend.”
Trump has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing, and one’s appearance in the Epstein files does not suggest otherwise. The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and insists he cut ties with Epstein years before the wealthy pedophile was under investigation.
Following the committee’s interview with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was fired by Trump earlier this year, her predecessor could be next in line for a closed-door session.
Acting Attorney Todd Blanche — Trump’s former personal attorney who has now been nominated for the top job at the Justice Department — was “in charge” of the “entire release” of the Epstein files, Bondi said in her interview last month.
“I’m communicating with the Department of Justice. I would like for Todd Blanche to come in in July,” Comer told reporters Wednesday.
Garcia said he wants the interview to Garcia, though, said he wants the interview to be a deposition under oath.
“It’s not enough to just get Blanche in,” Garcia added. “We have to have Blanche under oath. It’s got to be videotaped and released to the public.”
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