Epstein notes suggested Bill Gates engaged in extramarital sex
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Bill Gates appears with a woman, who's identity has been obscured, in this image from the Epstein estate released by House Oversight Committee Democrat.
PHOTOS: REUTERS
Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Coral Davenport
WASHINGTON - Jeffrey Epstein drafted notes to and about Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, suggesting that he engaged in extramarital sex, according to emails that the Justice Department released on Jan 30.
Epstein sent the July 2013 emails to himself. It is not clear if Epstein ever sent the emails to Mr Gates.
A representative of the Gates Foundation said, “These claims – from a proven, disgruntled liar – 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.”
Epstein wrote the messages about Mr Gates not long after his attempt to broker a venture between Gates’ foundation and JPMorgan Chase fizzled out – depriving Epstein of what he had hoped would be a gusher of income.
In one of Epstein’s emails, written in the style of a personal journal entry, the convicted sex offender wrote that he had helped Mr Gates acquire drugs “in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls” and that he had facilitated trysts for Mr Gates with married women.
In another email, Epstein blasted Mr Gates for choosing to “disregard and discard our friendship developed” over six years. He accused Mr Gates of abandoning him in order to preserve his reputation.
In a 2021 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Mr Gates called his relationship with the disgraced financier “a huge mistake”. He also sought to downplay his interactions with Epstein, saying he had several dinners with Epstein, with the hope of getting him to generate donations to the Gates Foundation.
Mr Gates’ relationship with Epstein – which began around 2011, after Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor – was among the factors that led his former wife, Melinda French Gates, to seek a divorce.
In one of the typo-ridden 2013 emails, Epstein wrote that he had decided to resign from his role with the Gates Foundation and BG3, a think tank founded by Bill Gates, because Epstein had been “caught up in a severe martial dispute between Melinda and Bill” and had been asked by Bill Gates to participate “in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate to the ethically unsound” and “potentially over the line into illegal”. NYTIMES
