Bill Gates faced questions on Wednesday having little to do with helping found Microsoft or his global health philanthropy, as members of a U.S. congressional committee questioned him about his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, the important work of the committee, to find justice for the victims,” Gates said in a brief statement to reporters before his questioning, noting that he was appearing voluntarily.
The Epstein Transparency Act, passed in late 2025, mandated that the U.S. Justice Department release millions of files related to investigations into the sex offender, whose death in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial after a federal indictment was ruled a suicide.
The House’s oversight and government reform committee, led by Republican James Comer, has interviewed at least 10 people since the release of the files, about half of them occurring over the past month. Those interviewed have included former U.S. president Bill Clinton, and Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary in Donald Trump’s current presidential administration.
Documents released by the Justice Department also included pictures of Gates posing with women whose faces are redacted, although the context of those pictures has not been specified.
Comer stressed before the interview to reporters that “no one’s accusing Bill Gates of any wrongdoing.”
In his opening statement to the panel, which was provided to the Associated Press, Gates said: “I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated.”
Gates said in the statement he never visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, nor his estate in Florida or ranch in New Mexico. It has been alleged that sexual abuse of minors and young women took place at those properties.
The Gates session is a closed-door transcribed interview. Transcripts of previous interview have been made available by the committee within several days.
First met Epstein after his conviction
Gates expressed confidence to Nine News in Australia in an interview earlier this year that any Epstein probe won’t implicate him in criminal or untoward behaviour.
“The more that comes out, the more clear it will be — though the time [with Epstein] was a mistake — it had nothing to do with that kind of behaviour,” Gates said to Nine.
WATCH | Some women accuse former AG Bondi of avoiding accountability:
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As with former president Clinton, who started a foundation involved in global health and said that Epstein provided his private jet for travel to foreign countries, Gates has previously framed his contacts with Epstein as being focused on philanthropic efforts through what was then known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“The focus was that he knew a lot of very rich people and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health,” Gates told the Australian broadcaster. “In retrospect, that was a dead end and I’ve said many times, and I’ll say again, it was foolish to spend time with him, I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.”
In contrast to Clinton, Trump, Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner and others — who each first crossed paths with Epstein in the 1980s and ’90s — Gates only came to know the financier after he had already served 13 months behind bars on state charges in Florida beginning in 2008 of one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of procurement of minors for prostitution.
Gates has said the contacts with Epstein occurred between 2011 and 2014, an assertion he repeated in his statement on Wednesday.
Gates Foundation conducting external review
Earlier this year, the Gates Foundation said it did not make any financial payments to Epstein or employ him at any time, but also that an external review of the organization’s contacts with Epstein would take place.
In 2021, the New York Times reported that Gates had dinners at Epstein’s Manhattan townhome and had flown on his jet. Ahead of meeting Gates, Epstein had informed foundation members of his Florida conviction, according to the newspaper.
WATCH | Lutnick, who gave conflicting Epstein accounts, sits for interview:
Howard Lutnick grilled about ties to Jeffrey Epstein
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was confronted by reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as he entered a closed-door hearing about Jeffrey Epstein, with his past ties, including a disputed island visit, back under scrutiny.
According to a Wall Street Journal report earlier this year, the billionaire apologized to Gates Foundation staff at a town hall. He reportedly admitted to foundation employees that he had affairs with two Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but that those women were not Epstein victims.
Gates told Nine that he never received an email written by Epstein that was discovered in the Justice Department tranche, in which Gates and Russian prostitutes are mentioned.
Melinda Gates French, the billionaire’s ex-wife who left the foundation two years ago, previously told CBS News she had made it to clear at the time to her former husband that she did not approve of the Epstein meetings.
The release of files has placed scrutiny on a number of individuals who had relationships with Epstein. In both the U.S. and Europe, several individuals have resigned from positions since the release of the files or seen their reputations tarnished.
A banner displaying the logo of the Gates Foundation is shown during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20, 2026. (Ina Fassbinder/AFP/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the committee interviewed Lesley Groff, who ended up in Epstein’s employ in 2001 after seeking a job through a headhunter. She stayed on until 2019, the year of his death.
Groff, who was married, never resided at any of Epstein properties and was involved in scheduling appointments and travel with Epstein. A synopsis of an FBI interview with Groff previously released by the U.S. government suggests Groff indicated she believed massage bookings for Epstein to be like any other appointments, with no suggestion of impropriety.
Several victims in court or in media interviews have described the massages as a guise for Epstein to commit sexual assault.
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