WASHINGTON — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will sit Wednesday for a closed-door transcribed interview with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, becoming the wealthiest witness yet to answer the Republican-led panel's questions about ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
The voluntary interview will take place behind closed doors, with a transcript released later. Gates was invited in March and accepted, his spokesperson said at the time.
The probe
Chairman James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, has spent months walking high-profile Epstein contacts through the committee's process. Those already interviewed include former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, billionaires Les Wexner and Leon Black, former Attorney General Pam Bondi and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein's former executive assistant, Lesley Groff, was questioned Tuesday.
"Anything's on the table," Comer told reporters Tuesday of the questions for Gates, adding that the billionaire "hasn't fought it."
What Gates has said
Gates and Epstein corresponded and met between 2011 and 2014, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and served 13 months in jail. Epstein killed himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
In February, Gates apologized to staff at a Gates Foundation town hall. "I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," Gates said, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. He called it "a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein" and to bring foundation executives into meetings with him.
Gates also admitted at the town hall to extramarital affairs with two Russian women, a bridge player and a nuclear physicist, that Epstein had become aware of. A 2013 email Epstein sent himself contained unverified allegations about Gates's conduct that a Gates spokesperson called "absolutely absurd and completely false." Text messages from 2017 show an apparent Gates adviser telling Epstein that Gates was interested in a donor-advised fund Epstein wanted to operate, but that Melinda Gates objected. The Gateses divorced in 2021.
Gates has not been accused of wrongdoing and has denied knowledge of Epstein's crimes against minors. His spokesperson said in March that Gates "never witnessed or participated in any of Epstein's illegal conduct" and was "looking forward to answering all the committee's questions."
Bipartisan posture
The committee's top Democrat, Representative Robert Garcia of California, signaled Tuesday he would press the same line as the chairman.
"We've said we don't care if you are a Republican or a Democrat or who you are, the fact that Mr. Gates still had a relationship with Mr. Epstein, even after knowing about the conviction, knowing actually what he had done, I think is very concerning," Garcia told reporters.
The Gates Foundation has commissioned an external review of its past dealings with Epstein and expects an update to its board this summer. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett, who has donated more than $43 billion to the foundation since 2006, told CNBC in late March he had not spoken to Gates "since the whole thing" with the Epstein files "was unveiled."
Kathryn Ruemmler, former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, and Black are scheduled to sit for interviews in the coming weeks.