Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates sat before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday in a closed-door interview on Capitol Hill, telling lawmakers his years of meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were "a grave error in judgment", while insisting he never witnessed criminal conduct and never visited Epstein's island, ranch, or Florida home.
The transcribed session, which stretched through the day on June 10, marked the highest-profile appearance yet in the committee's investigation into how the federal government handled its Epstein probes. Gates appeared voluntarily, not under subpoena, meaning the interview was transcribed but not video-recorded.
What emerged, as ABC News reported, was a portrait of a billionaire philanthropist who engaged extensively with a man already convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution, and who now says he didn't fully grasp what Epstein had done.
In a prepared opening statement, Gates laid out a timeline. He said his interactions with Epstein began with "a limited number of preliminary meetings, three in 2011 and two in 2012, during which I talked about the goals of my work." More extensive conversations followed in 2013 and 2014, focused on "identifying potential giving structures, such as donor-advised funds, and how to enroll individuals he claimed were interested in making significant contributions."
Gates told the committee he recalled "being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues" but "did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed." That claim deserves scrutiny. Epstein's guilty plea to soliciting a minor for prostitution was a matter of public record. Gates began engaging with him roughly three years later.
The billionaire also addressed Epstein's attempts at leverage. In his statement, Gates said Epstein had learned "sensitive information about my personal life", specifically, that Gates had been unfaithful in his marriage to Melinda French Gates. As Gates told House investigators, Epstein tried to use that information to pressure him to re-engage.
"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 re-engage with him. 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."
Sources familiar with the interview said Gates acknowledged two extramarital affairs, told lawmakers he met the women separately from Epstein, and denied that Epstein ever offered women to him. He said no young women were present at his dinners with Epstein. He also denied Epstein's claim, found in draft emails among the DOJ-released files, that Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted infection from one of the affairs.
The Department of Justice released millions of documents this year under the Epstein Transparency Act, and several directly involve Gates. A 2010 email Gates sent to his former science advisor Boris Nikolic reads: "I won't have time to do another meeting and I won't be able to do the dinner with Jeff Epstein. I was looking forward to the dinner."
That email is notable because Gates has consistently framed his Epstein interactions as purely transactional, about philanthropy, not friendship. Expressing that he was "looking forward to the dinner" complicates that framing, at least around the edges.
By February 2014, Gates was warming to Epstein's pitch for donor-advised funds. "It is a good analogy. It is clearer to me now than before and it could be a great thing," Gates wrote. But by December of that year, the enthusiasm had cooled: "In terms of the DAF I don't think we have any people at this point who will move to do something soon. It is a good idea, but it won't come together with 4-6 partners anytime soon."
The Gates Foundation never moved forward with Epstein's proposed fund and never transferred money to him. A foundation spokesperson said in February that "a small number of foundation employees interacted with Epstein to try to secure this potential funding" but that "no fund was ever created." The foundation also commissioned an external review in March to assess its past engagement with Epstein and its policies for vetting philanthropic partnerships. An update is expected later this summer.
Committee members from both parties offered guarded assessments during breaks. Ranking Democrat Robert Garcia told reporters Gates had been "cooperative and answering our questions," though he noted Gates was "pushing back" at times. Garcia said Gates referenced former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as among other individuals involved with Epstein.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia offered a blunter summary: "He is sorry he associated with Epstein so much... but in the end what is done is done."
Chairman James Comer, the Kentucky Republican driving the investigation, signaled the committee's work is far from finished. He told reporters he wants acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to appear before the panel in July. "I'm communicating with the Department of Justice," Comer said. "I would like for Todd Blanche to come in in July. He's got, you know, I think we all know he has a big confirmation coming up, but I've always wanted Blanche to come in."
Comer said the central question for Blanche is "what, if any, documents are left out there." That question matters. The DOJ and FBI said last year they found "no credible evidence" that Epstein used his sex trafficking network to blackmail wealthy and influential men. Whether the committee finds that conclusion satisfying, or incomplete, may depend on what documents remain unreleased.
Garcia, for his part, wants more than a transcribed interview. In a June 2 letter to Comer, he sought videotaped, transcribed interviews with both Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel. As Blanche has previously endorsed public congressional hearings for Epstein survivors, the question now is whether he'll sit for the kind of recorded testimony Democrats are demanding.
"It's very important to us that that is a deposition that is under oath and it's videotaped and released to the American public."
Garcia said that to reporters during a break in the Gates interview.
Comer also disclosed he is seeking a transcribed interview with attorney Alan Dershowitz, a move prompted by consultations with some of Epstein's victims following the committee's interview with Epstein's longtime executive secretary Lesley Groff the day before Gates' appearance.
Dershowitz told ABC News he is eager to testify. "I would be the most relevant person for them to call. I want it to be open. I want it to be under oath," he said. He claimed to have information contradicting some testimony the committee has already received and argued that "the area is much grayer than it looks." He also asserted that some of Epstein's victims were "complicit", a claim that will face sharp scrutiny if he does appear.
The committee has already conducted transcribed interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in recent weeks. The broader investigation into how the government handled Epstein has raised uncomfortable questions for officials across administrations and party lines. As recent reporting on the Epstein files fallout has shown, the political stakes extend well beyond any single witness.
Gates' prepared statement addressed the personal wreckage his Epstein association left behind. "These affairs had nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family," he said. His ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, has said their 2021 divorce was driven in part by his relationship with Epstein. Earlier this year, she said on NPR's Wild Card podcast that the released documents brought back "some very, very painful times."
"Whatever questions remain there... those questions are for those people, and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me."
Gates told 9News Australia in February that his focus with Epstein "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."
A dead end, but one that lasted years, spanned multiple meetings, generated email chains about fund structures, and gave a convicted sex offender personal leverage over one of the wealthiest men on the planet. Gates told the committee he believes Nikolic, his former science advisor, informed Epstein about his affairs. Whether that belief is accurate, and how Epstein wielded that information, remain open questions the committee has yet to fully resolve.
Gates did not answer reporters' questions as he left the Capitol on Wednesday. He had said on his way in that morning: "I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, important work of the committee to find justice for the victims."
The committee will decide whether it was. What the public deserves to decide is something broader: why so many powerful people found it reasonable to keep company with a man whose crimes were already a matter of public record, and why accountability for that judgment keeps arriving years late, behind closed doors, without cameras rolling.
