February 24 – Bill Gates “took responsibility for his actions” regarding his ties to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with Gates Foundation staff, a spokesman for the Gates Foundation told Reuters in a written statement on Tuesday.
The spokesman’s comments came in response to a Wall Street Journal report, which said Gates apologized to staff during a town hall about his ties to Epstein.
Documents released by the US Department of Justice indicated that Gates and Epstein met repeatedly after Epstein’s prison term to discuss expanding the Microsoft founder’s charitable efforts.
According to the magazine report, Gates told employees it was a grave mistake to spend time with Epstein and bring Gates Foundation executives to meetings with sex offenders. The report cited a recording of comments Gates made at city hall.
“I apologize to other people who were drawn into this because of the mistake I made,” he said, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper added that Gates also admitted that he had an affair with two Russian women who Epstein later discovered, but they were not related to Epstein’s victims.
Gates told employees, according to the report: “I did nothing illegal. I did not see anything illegal.”
The documents released by the Department of Justice also included photos of the Microsoft founder with women whose faces were obscured. Gates previously said the relationship with Epstein was limited to discussions related to charitable work, and said it was a mistake to meet him.
According to the newspaper, Gates told the foundation’s employees that the photos were photos that Epstein asked him to take with Epstein’s assistants after their meetings.
Gates added, according to the report: “To be clear, I did not spend any time with the victims and the women around him.”
A Gates Foundation spokesperson told Reuters that Gates held a scheduled meeting with staff and answered questions on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files.
“At City Hall, Bill spoke frankly, answered numerous questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions.”
The spokesperson also said that the Gates Foundation’s statement acknowledged what the billionaire shared during the town hall, and the statement is all the foundation has to say about the report.
Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation said it had never made any payments to Epstein or employed him at any time.
The billionaire also pulled out of the AI Impact Summit in India hours before his scheduled keynote last week.
The Gates Foundation, chaired by Bill Gates and created by him and his then-wife in 2000, is one of the world’s largest funders of global health initiatives.
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