Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates testified about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a closed-door House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, claiming that Epstein tried to use extramarital affairs to pressure him into maintaining their relationship.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the oversight committee, told MS Now that as part of his testimony, Gates described dinners and meetings he attended related to Epstein and maintained that he was not involved with any of the late disgraced sex offender’s wrongdoing. Gates also discussed his knowledge of Epstein’s associates, with Garcia mentioning Larry Summers, the former Harvard president who stepped down after he appeared in troves of Epstein-related documents.
At one point, Gates testified that Epstein used his infidelity to his wife Melinda Gates to try to keep their relationship intact.
“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 reengage with him,” Gates said in his opening remarks. “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 has acknowledged his relationship with Epstein, saying the two had met on multiple occasions after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes in 2008, but said the meetings with Epstein were related to philanthropic discussions. While Gates has maintained his claim that he “saw nothing illicit” when it came to his relationship with Epstein, the tech mogul apologized to his staff earlier this year for associating with the sex offender.
“At the outset, I want to state very clearly: I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct,” Gates said, according to his written opening statement. “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.”
A source familiar told the Washington Examiner Gates admitted that he knew Epstein had been convicted of a sex crime when their relationship began.
In the millions of Epstein-related documents released by the Department of Justice, Gates’s name appears in several emails. Epstein sent himself emails in 2013 that appear to be drafts styled as a resignation letter from Gates’s then-close associate, Boris Nikolic, in which Epstein wrote of resigning because he had gotten “caught up in a severe marital dispute” between the billionaire and Melinda, his then-wife.
The 2013 emails from Epstein appeared to be written in reference to Nikolic’s move to leave Gates’s private office, with Epstein seeming to insert himself into the negotiations by drafting a resignation note for Nikolic. Nikolic was a physicist and science adviser to Gates. In the resignation letter, Epstein suggested that Gates was having an extramarital affair and seeking illicit drugs. Gates called the emails “false” and said the last time he met with Epstein was in 2014.
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The testimony comes as the oversight panel has been conducting an extensive investigation into Epstein’s crimes. The committee has conducted 15 interviews, including with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, former Attorney General Bill Barr, Epstein’s former associate and girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and billionaire Les Wexner.
As part of the investigation, the committee has released multiple batches of documents related to the files, many of which were obtained from the committee’s subpoena to Epstein’s estate. While the DOJ has released a slew of files, some have been pushed back, prompting Democrats to insist the department has not complied with a law passed by Congress last year requiring the release of all documents pertaining to Epstein.