Bill Gates will be heard on June 10 by a committee of the US Congress investigating the Epstein affair, an AFP source close to the case confirmed on Tuesday. The billionaire and Microsoft co-founder will appear for a closed-door interview before this committee of the House of Representatives, which wants to question him about his past ties with the sexual criminal.
Reached by AFP, the Gates Foundation did not immediately respond. But according to a spokesman for the billionaire, quoted by Politico, Bill Gates “welcomes” the opportunity to appear before the committee. “Although he has never attended or participated in any illegal acts by Epstein, he looks forward to answering the committee’s questions to support this important work,” the spokesman added.
“A huge mistake”
In late February, Bill Gates declared that his connections with Jeffrey Epstein were a “huge mistake”, admitting to members of his foundation that he had extramarital relationships with two Russian women but denying any involvement in the actions of the American financier, who died in prison in 2019 before facing trial for sex crimes. “It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein” and to invite foundation leaders to meetings with him, he said in an audio recording obtained by the Wall Street Journal. “I did nothing illegal. I saw nothing illegal,” Bill Gates also said.
According to him, his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein began in 2011, three years after the former financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. An email draft from Jeffrey Epstein, published by the US Department of Justice in the mass of documents from the same file, mentions Bill Gates’ extramarital relationships. In this message, which does not appear to have been sent, Jeffrey Epstein boasted of helping “Bill” obtain drugs to “remedy the consequences of sexual relations with Russian girls.”
Mentioning a person’s name in the Epstein file does not imply any wrongdoing a priori. But these documents show at the very least connections between the sexual criminal or his circle and certain personalities who have often downplayed, or even denied, the existence of such relationships.
