Gates admitted to having two affairs, the Wall Street Journal reports, but told employees he “did nothing illicit” regarding Epstein.
The latest release of the Epstein files give new insights about Epstein’s relationship with Bill Gates —which has dogged the billionaire for years, and we know now wreaked havoc on his marriage—forcing Gates to reportedlythree million documents on Epstein on Friday to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which include hundreds of emails, text messages and other documents that reference Gates.
But it was known Gates had a relationship with Epstein beginning in 2011—nearly three years after he was convicted for procuring a child for prostitution in Florida—meeting with the financier on multiple occasions to, at least at the beginning, try to start a donor-advised fund before Gates apparently cut ties with Epstein in late 2014. The latest batch of Epstein files include communications about his professional relationship with Gates, but Epstein also made a number of allegations that have caused a firestorm, including allegations of Gates’ drug use and participation in “illicit trysts,” that Gates contracted a sexually transmitted disease and then "surreptitiously" gave antibiotics for the disease to then-wife Melinda French Gates. Gates addressed his relationship with Epstein during a town hall for the Gates Foundation on Feb. 24, the Wall Street Journal, in which he apologized for associating with the financier—calling it a “huge mistake”—but insisted he “did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit” in connection with Epstein.No documents allege Gates was involved with wrongdoing in connection with Epstein or had knowledge of the financier’s alleged sex trafficking, and the billionaire has repeatedly insisted his relationship with Epstein was strictly based on discussing business. Bill Gates and Boris Nikolic attend "Together To End AIDS: An Evening To Benefit amfAR and GBCHealth" at the Kennedy Center in July 2012 in Washington, DC.In his town hall with employees Tuesday, Gates said “it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein” and apologized “to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” the Journal. He denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and defended photos of himself with anonymous women that were released as part of the files, saying Epstein had asked him to take photos with the financier’s assistants after their business meetings. “To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” Gates told employees. The billionaire acknowledged he associated with Epstein despite the financier pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution in 2008, saying he heard when he started working with Epstein that the financier had an “18-month thing” that limited his travel, but did not look into Epstein’s background. “Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,” Gates told employees, and claimed Epstein’s association with other billionaires and high-profile figures “made it easier for me to feel like this was a normalized situation.” In response to allegations made directly against Gates in the files, the billionaire acknowledged to employees he “did have affairs” that Epstein later found out about. He had two affairs, Gates said, with a Russian bridge player and with a Russian nuclear physicist, whom the Journal reports worked at one of Gates’ companies. He did not admit to any other claims in the files, which he and his spokespeople have previously denied. Gates also previously commented on the latest Epstein files release in an interview with Australia's, saying on Feb. 4 it was “factually true that I was only at dinners” and he “never went to the island” or “met any women.” The billionaire suggested “the more that comes out” about his connection with Epstein, “the more clear it’ll be that although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior.” He also laterof an Indian AI summit in February amid the scrutiny into his Epstein ties. The Gates Foundation and Gates Ventures have not responded to requests for further comment on the latest Epstein files release and the allegations the files contain.Gates was supposed to first meet Epstein in 2010, an email released in the latest document release shows, but he had a scheduling conflict, writing in a Dec. 2he was “looking forward to the dinner” with Epstein and hoped it would happen in the future. He went on to meet Epstein for the first time on Jan. 31, 2011, at the financier’s Manhattan townhouse, The New York Timesin 2019, after they were connected by two Gates Foundation officials, Melanie Walker and Boris Nikolic, who knew Epstein. Gates “ended up staying there quite late,” he wrote in an email to colleagues the next day, adding Epstein’s “lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.” The pair were subsequently spotted shortly after speaking privately at a TED conference in California. Emails, photographs and news reports suggest Epstein and Gates went on to meet regularly in person between 2011 and 2014, which Gates confirmed to employees Tuesday. In addition to meeting Epstein at his New York residence, records suggest Gates flew on Epstein’s private plane, though a Gates spokesperson told the Times he was not aware it was Epstein’s plane. Gates told employees Tuesday he flew on Epstein’s plane and met with him in Germany, France, New York and Washington, but never stayed with him overnight. Gates repeated Tuesday he had never been to Epstein’s island, though an October 2011Epstein tried to get Gates involved with a plan for a charitable fund with Gates’ money and the help of JPMorgan Chase and other billionaire donors. The charity would fund health projects around the world. Epstein sent an email to JPMorgan executives on Aug. 16, 2011, saying the fund “will allow Bill to have access to higher quality people , investment , allocation , governance without upsetting either his marriage or the sensitvites of the current foundation employees,” asby the Wall Street Journal. Gates told employees Tuesday that Epstein “talked about the kind of intimate relationship he had with a lot of billionaires, particularly Wall Street billionaires,” which led Gates to believe he could help raise money for his causes, the Journal reports. The billionaire apologized for getting the Gates Foundation involved with Epstein, telling staff, “It definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation,” and expressed concern it could harm the organization’s reputation. In an unpublished 2014 magazine profile of Epstein that writer Michael Wolff hashe wrote and sent to Epstein for review, Wolff alleged Epstein had been “advising Gates on a vast expansion and restructuring of the Gates foundation,” with Epstein proposing “a way to leverage” the Gates Foundation’s resources “to accommodate many other fortunes” from other billionaires. Wolff also claimed Gates was “prodding Epstein to begin a process of public rehabilitation” after his conviction for soliciting prostitution, and Wolff suggested that writing a flattering profile of Epstein would allow Gates to “get ‘out in front’” of criticism about him working with the financier. The latest document release includes emails from Gates in support of the donor-advised fund, and detailing meetings he had about the project,Epstein in a February 2014 message the fund “could be a great thing.” Beyond the charitable fund, documents suggest Epstein mediated on Nikolic’s behalf to negotiate his severance package after the Gates Foundation fired the longtime employee in 2013, with Gates thanking Epstein for his help with the matter and adding, “I don't know how to say that strongly enough.”Epstein in December of that year, “It is a good idea but it won't come together with 4-6 partners anytime soon.” Epstein complained to an acquaintance at the end of 2014 that Gates “had stopped talking to him,” The Times reported based on anonymous sources, and spokesperson Arnold told the publication, “Over time, Gates and his team realized Epstein’s capabilities and ideas were not legitimate and all contact with Epstein was discontinued.” Gates told employees on Feb. 24 he did not meet with Epstein after 2014, though some “ancillary issues” came up after that, the Journal reports. Gates also confirmed in February the plans for their fund fell apart, telling 9 News Epstein’s promise to raise money “was a dead end.” Epstein’s attempts to contact Gates continued in vain, however: He sent an email to Gates and Gates Ventures CEO Larry Cohen in January 2015, the context unclear, writing, “I guess i won't be able to run for office for a while,” and later asking Gates in September 2015 if he would be in New York City that month. It’s unclear if Gates responded to either email, and the billionaire told employees Tuesday that after 2014, Epstein “continued to email me,” but he didn’t respond, the Journal reports. Epstein also inquired about Gates in text messages with a person, a longtime Gates associate, telling her in January 2017 that Gates was “free to call me for inside baseball” before a Washington D.C. meeting with officials from the incoming Trump administration. Epstein often said in the ensuing months and years that Walker should have Gates reach out, but it’s unclear if Gates ever actually did. A text message exchange in 2018 with an unknown recipient suggests Epstein may have still been in contact with Gates, as the person asked Epstein to ask Gates to set up a meeting with them, and Epstein said he will “send Bill a message,” but it’s unclear whether Gates ever responded.. After the two appeared to stop speaking, Walker suggested in text messages between 2017 and 2019—around the time the Miami Herald and other publications began taking a fresh look into sexual abuse allegations against Epstein—that Gates still liked Epstein but was barred from seeing him by French Gates and Cohen. Walker told Epstein in January 2017 that Gates “wants to talk to you but his wife won't let him,” and later said in March Epstein could “try to invite” Gates to an event, but “Larry told him he couldn't have contact w you so would have to manage that carefully.” Epstein responded by saying he “like Bill,” but the billionaire “gets more from me than I get from him” and should “grow some balls and start to .” The last exchange about Gates was in February 2019—shortly before Epstein’s July arrest—when Epstein told Walker she should tell Gates he “owes me a call.” Walker told Epstein she passed that message on to Gates when she saw him but the billionaire “didn’t say anything,” though he “asked how you were and I said you were doing great and lots of science.”The latest Epstein files include multiple emails that Epstein sent himself in July 2013 with letters that are apparently directed at Gates. It’s unclear whether those letters were written by Epstein or someone else, though the timing matches when Epstein was handling Nikolic’s negotiations with the Gates Foundation. Nikolic told the Journal the emails “were not written on my behalf or at my request.” In one, the writer of the email said Gates had directed them to delete messages regarding the billionaire having a sexually transmitted disease and a “request that I provide you antibiotics that you can to Melinda,” and the writer also referenced a redacted “topic that must remain between the two of us.” In, Gates is alleged to have asked the writer to participate “in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate to the ethically unsound” and were “repeatedly asked” to do things “that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal.” The writer also alleged they helped Gates “get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls,” facilitated the billionaire’s “illicit trysts, with married women” and was asked to provide Gates with Adderall. Gates, both directly and through the Gates Foundation, has denied all of those claims. In a statement after the latest release of Epstein files, a Gates Foundation spokesperson said, "These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein's frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame." Gates also denied the allegations in the letter, telling 9 News, “Apparently Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent, the email is you know, false. So I don’t know what his thinking was there.” In his comments to employees on Feb. 24, Gates admitted having two affairs with Russian women—who he met separately from Epstein—and said Nikolic had informed Epstein about the affairs, the Journal reports. The billionaire did not suggest any other allegations from the emails were true.from an unnamed person who told Epstein in November 2017 she heard Gates being described as “a strange behavior guy and … always drunk” and discussed the possibility of taking legal action against him for unspecified alleged misconduct. The person who sent the text messages is not specified, but the conversation includes other details that match Epstein’s conversations with the person believed to be Walker, and the person references “Steve,” which may refer to Walker’s husband Steven Sinofsky. The person suggested she was afraid to retaliate against Gates, writing, “I’m very scared and hesitant to do anything to upset him He seems bigger than police and justice systems etc.” The Gates Foundation and Gates Ventures have not yet responded to requests for comment on those claims, but Gates has more broadly denied any wrongdoing. Walker has not commented publicly on the text messages, and the University of Washington Medicine, where Walker is employed as a professor and surgeon, has not yet responded to a request for comment on her exchanges with Epstein. Also in 2017, Epstein sent Gates an email asking for him to reimburse costs for Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, according to anonymous sources cited by the, who said “the tone of the message was that Epstein knew about” an affair Gates had with Antonova in 2010 “and could expose it.” A Gates spokesman said the billionaire had no “financial dealings” with Epstein, telling the Journal in a statement that Gates only discussed philanthropy with Epstein and, “Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.”The latest Epstein documents show the FBI asking questions about Gates in 2020, after Epstein’s death. An anonymous FBI official sent anto an unnamed recipient based on information heard through a colleague’s friend at Microsoft, who said the company was “distancing itself from Bill Gates to minimize exposure to any backlash that could come upon the company if information came out that Gates had been involved in illegal activity similar to that of Epstein.” The FBI official asked if the email recipient had any knowledge of a connection between Epstein and Gates that would warrant such concern, and the person responded, “I have heard nothing like that.” Gates Ventures, the FBI and the Gates Foundation have not yet responded to requests for comment on the email, and Microsoft declined to comment.The Wall Street Journal in January 2025 he was “quite stupid” to have socialized with Epstein. “I was foolish to spend any time with him,” Gates said in an interview. “I thought it would help me with global health philanthropy; in fact it failed to do that. It was just a huge mistake.” Gates had said he met with Epstein only a few times to discuss philanthropy, and his spokesperson ArnoldThe New York Times in 2019, “Gates recognizes that entertaining Epstein’s ideas related to philanthropy gave Epstein an undeserved platform that was at odds with Gates’s personal values and the values of his foundation.”Walker’s January 2017 suggestion that Gates’ then-wife was blocking the billionaire from seeing Epstein is in line with French Gates’ public comments. She hasGates’ association with the “abhorrent” Epstein was one of the factors that led to their divorce, telling CBS, “I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him.” Epstein told Walker in January 2017 that she should try to arrange a meeting between Gates’ wife and Kathy Ruemmler, a former White House counsel whosewere also included in the Epstein files. “She would love to sit with Melinda and give her the other side of jeffrey,” Epstein told Walker, describing Ruemmler as “an arch feminist who is my great defender.” In comments toon Monday, French Gates called Epstein’s alleged abuse “beyond heartbreaking” and expressed sympathy for his victims. “Whatever questions remain” regarding Epstein’s actions, “those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband,” French Gates said. “They need to answer to those things, not me.” French Gates also suggested she divorced her former husband at least in part because of his association with Epstein, telling NPR that the details of Epstein’s emails about Gates make her feel “unbelievable sadness” and remind her why, “I had to leave my marriage, I wanted to leave my marriage.” Gates acknowledged in his town hall his ex-wife had been opposed to his association with Epstein, the Journal reports, telling employees, “To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing.” He said he continued to associate with Epstein despite her expressing concerns about the financier in 2013.Epstein’s conversations with Walker also include a number of discussions about Gates’ involvement with the first Trump administration. The pair discussed how Gates was seeking help from Trump regarding the billionaire’s international aid initiatives, but the president did not seem interested. “Bill says he has zero interest in doing anything helpful on health or tech for US until trump stands up on international development and aid,” Walker told Epstein in February 2017, adding she wished the billionaire “could get his head around the needs of our country as opposed to development aid.” Epstein repeatedly told Walker she should direct Gates to meet with Thomas Barrack, who served as the chair of Trump’s first inaugural committee and whose communications with Epstein were also included in the House Oversight Committee’s recent document release. Barrack and Trump advisor Steve Bannon—another known Epstein associate—were the “puppet masters” in the Trump administration, Epstein claimed, telling Walker that Gates meeting with Barrack while the billionaire was in Washington D.C. should be his “most important” priority.on Jan. 30, more than a month after the government’s deadline to make the files public under federal law. Congress passed legislation requiring the release of the Epstein files in November, after the DOJ sparked a public outcry by saying the agency would not voluntarily release the documents itself. Epstein died in prison in 2019 after being indicted on sex-trafficking charges, but his case has remained a source of public fascination, largely due to the high-profile figures like Gates the financier was known to associate with. In addition to Gates, billionaires and powerful figures mentioned in the Epstein files include Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former President Bill Clinton, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, New York Giants chair Steve Tisch and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. None of those men have been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and all have denied knowledge of the financier’s abuse.
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