(WASHINGTON) — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will face questions on Wednesday about his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, marking one of the most high-profile interviews conducted by the House Oversight Committee since it began probing the government’s handling of its investigations into the notorious sex offender.
Gates has called his relationship with Epstein a “mistake” and has denied witnessing or participating in any crimes, though his association with the late financier has roiled his nonprofit and reshaped the public perception of the tech billionaire who was once the world’s richest man.
“I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him,” Gates said in February.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) first reached out to Gates in March to schedule the behind-closed-doors interview, writing in a letter that the tech billionaire might “have information that will assist in its investigation.” In recent weeks, the Committee has conducted similar transcribed interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Epstein’s longtime executive secretary Lesley Groff.
“Gates welcomes the opportunity to appear before the Committee,” a spokesperson for Gates said in March. “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.”
Gates’ relationship with Epstein faced a new wave of scrutiny earlier this year when the Department of Justice’s release of Epstein files included correspondence between the two men, as well as cryptic notes drafted by Epstein that hinted at Gates’ extramarital affairs.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Gates apologized to the staff of his nonprofit during a town hall in February and acknowledged that he had affairs with two Russian women that Epstein later discovered. A spokesperson for Gates in a 2023 statement said that Epstein “tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.”
“In the town hall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions,” a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation told ABC News.
Melinda French Gates — who previously said her 2021 divorce from Bill Gates was driven in part by his association with Epstein — said earlier this year that the documents brought back memories of “some very, very painful times” in their marriage.
“Whatever questions remain there … those questions are for those people, and for even my ex-husband,” she said on NPR’s Wild Card podcast about what she described as a societal “reckoning” over the Epstein files. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”
Gates is expected to face some of those questions on Wednesday when he speaks with the House Oversight Committee about his relationship with Epstein. Members of the Committee have expressed a desire to learn whether Epstein used his sex trafficking network to lure in wealthy and influential men to blackmail — allegations that the DOJ and FBI said they found “no credible evidence” of last year.
Neither of the women who Gates acknowledged having affairs with — a Russian bridge player and nuclear physicist — were said to have been introduced to Gates by Epstein, though a spokesperson later said that Epstein sought to “leverage” his knowledge of one of his past relationships to “threaten” Gates.
The interview is also likely to touch on how Epstein was able to ingratiate himself with Gates just three years after pleading guilty to charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution. Gates has previously said he was aware of an “18-month thing” that limited Epstein’s travel, and he regrets not further investigating Epstein’s background.
According to documents released earlier this year by the Department of Justice, Gates first met Epstein in 2011.
“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 a 2010 email to Boris Nikolic, his former science advisor. “I was looking forward to the dinner.”
Gates later said he hoped he could leverage Epstein’s relationships with “very rich people” to support his global health philanthropic efforts.
“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. In retrospect, that was a dead end,” Gates told 9News Australia in February.
According to documents released by the DOJ, both men continued to communicate for at least three years, with Epstein at one point urging Gates to use a specific philanthropic vehicle known as a “donor advised fund” to make charitable contributions. At the time, Epstein compared donor advised funds to “cloud computing for the giving world.”
“It is a good analogy,” Gates wrote in a February 2014 email. “It is clearer to me now than before and it could be a great thing.”
But by December 2014, Gates appeared to cool on Epstein’s proposal, suggesting in an email that the plan was not viable for him.
“In terms of the DAF I don’t think we have any people at this point who will move to do something soon,” Gates wrote. “It is a good idea, but it won’t come together with 4-6 partners anytime soon.”
In a statement earlier this year, the Gates Foundation said it did not move forward with Epstein’s fund and never transferred any funds to 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. Ultimately, the foundation did not pursue any collaboration with Epstein and no fund was ever created,” a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation said in February.
By March, the Gates Foundation commissioned an external review to assess its past engagement with Epstein as well as its policies for vetting philanthropic partnerships. Foundation officials said in a statement they expected to get an update about that review later this summer.
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