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WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Bill Gates said Wednesday that he made a \u201cgrave error in judgment\u201d by meeting with Jeffrey Epstein but denied any wrongdoing as the Microsoft co-founder faced hours of questioning from lawmakers about his relationship with the disgraced financier.<\/p>\n
In an opening statement provided to The Associated Press, Gates said he \u201cshould never have met with Epstein in the first place,\u201d but that he \u201cnever witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tech billionaire became the latest powerful figure linked to Epstein to testify before the House Oversight Committee. The committee chairman, Republican Rep. James Comer, formally requested that Gates testify after he appeared multiple times in a trove of documents released by the Justice Department as part of its Epstein probe.<\/p>\n
As Gates arrived at the Capitol, he noted that his appearance was voluntary and said he hoped his testimony would help lawmakers \u201cfind justice for the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gates, who chairs the Gates Foundation, has not been accused in connection with Epstein’s crimes and has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein\u2019s abuse of girls. He has said the two met only to discuss philanthropy and previously described the relationship as \u201ca huge mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most Democratic members who participated in Wednesday’s questioning described Gates as cooperative. They said some of the most useful information he provided involved other influential people in Epstein\u2019s orbit. Lawmakers also said they pressed Gates on why he continued interacting with Epstein after his 2008 guilty plea.<\/p>\n
Gates was aware that Epstein had been convicted of \u201ca horrific crime and continued to interact with him to seek money for his foundation,\u201d said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, who described Gates’ actions as \u201ca horrific judgment call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the interview began, Comer told reporters that the committee’s effort was \u201cabout trying to figure out how the government failed.\u201d
\nLawmakers scrutinize Gates\u2019 relationship with Epstein<\/p>\n
Gates said he was introduced to Epstein through people involved in his professional and philanthropic work and was drawn in by Epstein\u2019s claims that he could help raise billions of dollars for global health initiatives. Gates says he ended the relationship in 2014 after concluding Epstein could not deliver on those promises.<\/p>\n
Gates added that he never went to Epstein’s island or his other infamous properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n
The remarks come as lawmakers review documents detailing Gates\u2019 interactions with Epstein. Included in the files are calendar entries for meetings between Gates and Epstein, email correspondence between the two about philanthropic projects and photos of Gates at events that Epstein also attended.<\/p>\n
Their relationship began in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor, and continued until at least late 2014, according to the documents.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers offered differing accounts of the interview as they exited the room throughout the day.<\/p>\n
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett described the questioning as \u201cintense,\u201d while Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said Gates was \u201ccombative\u201d and \u201cnot terribly forthcoming or candid.\u201d Garcia, by contrast, said that while Gates pushed back on some inquiries, \u201che\u2019s answering the questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury said Gates acknowledged maintaining contact with Epstein because he believed the \u201cnarrow relationship\u201d was \u201can acceptable means to access wealthy donors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have said his association with Epstein created tension in their marriage.<\/p>\n
The foundation acknowledged in February that a small number of employees had met with Epstein based on his \u201cclaims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health.\u201d They never created a charitable fund together, and the foundation made no payments to Epstein.
\nBroader Epstein investigation continues<\/p>\n
Epstein was federally indicted in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. The Justice Department alleged that Epstein formed a vast network of girls, some as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse between 2002 and 2005. He died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.<\/p>\n
The files released by the Justice Department read like a who\u2019s who of powerful men across tech, finance, politics and other industries. All have denied involvement in Epstein\u2019s crimes, but some maintained or formed friendships with him even after his history of sexual abuse came to light.<\/p>\n
At another closed-door deposition in February, former President Bill Clinton faced more than six hours of questioning from lawmakers about his association with Epstein more than two decades ago. Epstein visited the White House several times during Clinton\u2019s presidency, and Clinton flew occasionally on Epstein’s private jet.<\/p>\n
The former Democratic president said he saw no signs of Epstein\u2019s sexual abuse and stopped associating with him long before Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea. Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.<\/p>\n
Democrats on the House committee have pushed for testimony from President Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with Epstein. Republicans have said they have not come across any evidence that Trump did anything wrong during his well-documented friendship with Epstein.<\/p>\n
Comer said Wednesday that he’s planning to ask attorney Alan Dershowitz to appear and that he’s been in communication with the Justice Department about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche coming in for questioning as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bill Gates said Wednesday that he made a \u201cgrave error in judgment\u201d by meeting with Jeffrey Epstein but denied any wrongdoing as the Microsoft co-founder faced hours of questioning from lawmakers about his relationship with the disgraced financier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1514632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,1447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1514631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-heads","category-abc-national-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-12 13:58:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1514631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514633,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514631\/revisions\/1514633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1514632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1514631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1514631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1514631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}