Bill Gates Apologizes to Staff Over Jeffrey Epstein Ties: ‘Huge Mistake’

Billionaire Bill Gates apologized to his staff of the Gates Foundation regarding his ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Gates, 70, offered up the apology during a town hall on Tuesday, February 24, according to the Wall Street Journal. While he admitted to having two affairs with Russian women when he was married to his now-ex-wife Melinda French Gates, he claimed that he did nothing “illicit.” He added that Epstein discovered the affairs, but they were not with any of Epstein’s victims.

“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates said in a recording obtained by the WSJ.

The Microsoft founder also addressed the recent images released in the Epstein files that showed Gates posing with women whose faces were redacted. He claimed that the photos were photos that Epstein requested he take with assistants of the disgraced financier after meetings.

“To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” Gates continued. “It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein. I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.”

The tech mogul went on to explain that he first met with Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. However, Gates claimed he wasn’t aware of Epstein’s crimes.

He added that he knew about an “18-month thing” that restricted Epstein’s travel, but said that he didn’t do a background check and continued socializing with Epstein even after Melinda, 61, had expressed concerns about the convicted criminal.

“Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,” Gates said. “To give [Melinda] credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing.”

Gates also claimed that he never visited Epstein’s island or “stayed overnight” after his meetings, which continued until 2014.

“It definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation,” he said. “And our work is very reputational sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us.”