Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, one of the wealthiest men in the world, and one of the leading philanthropists today, appeared before the United States Congress on Wednesday in a highly anticipated hearing to discuss his relationship with the pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Gates emphasized upon arrival that his appearance was "voluntary," although some congressmen noted that his attitude in the closed-door meeting was more combative than expected. "I never witnessed criminal behavior or victimized anyone," he said.
His years-long relationship with Epstein is known, documented, and has caused him considerable damage. If it was infidelities that ended his marriage, it has been his friendship with the financier that is costing him a fortune in public relations, crisis managers, and image consultants. Invitations to dinners and events have dwindled, and the reputation he had cultivated for decades has been severely tarnished.
Gates has always maintained that his meetings with Epstein were "a serious error in judgment", but that he was unaware of his illegal activities. "I never went to his island, his ranch, or his house in Florida," he stated, adding that he did not meet any of the women involved in the case through Epstein or his associates. "I hope that my testimony will be useful for the committee's work, the important work of seeking justice for the victims," he said upon arrival.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi noted during a recess that Gates had been "combative and not as willing to cooperate" as the committee had expected. Gates somewhat portrayed himself as a victim of Epstein, stating that Epstein used information about his extramarital affairs as leverage to maintain contact. "As the public can now see, based on what has been published in the files, Epstein was working to use information about my infidelities, along with many lies he added, to pressure me into rekindling a relationship with him," he said in a statement distributed to the media. "He did not succeed, but this demonstrates some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his own interests." The infidelities, he reiterated, "had nothing to do with the interactions with Epstein, but were painful for my family."
Committee Chairman, Republican Congressman James Comer, had formally requested Gates' testimony following his appearance in numerous documents published by the Department of Justice as part of the investigation into Epstein. Before the hearing, Comer emphasized that "no one is accusing Bill Gates of any crime," but that his testimony would be valuable, just as those of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, or more recently, former Attorney General Pam Bondi. "This is about the survivors, the victims of Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. It's about trying to figure out how the government failed," he insisted.
Gates explained that he met Epstein through people related to his work and philanthropic activities, attracted by the financier's claims that he could help raise billions of dollars for global health initiatives. He claims to have ended the relationship in 2014 after realizing that Epstein could not fulfill those promises. "I have never harmed anyone. While he may have tried to establish a personal relationship, it never interested me, and I did not reciprocate his feelings," he declared according to AP.
The issue, however, is that when Gates initiated that relationship in 2011, Epstein had already been convicted of child prostitution after reaching an agreement with the Florida prosecutor —a charge that years later would become a minister in Trump's first term—. Nevertheless, the relationship continued until 2014.
For this appearance, Gates' lawyers enlisted the services of John Moran, a former Republican official from the Department of Justice, and Jake Greenberg, who until December was a senior investigative advisor for the House Oversight Committee, the body responsible for this case. In May, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, Gates' legal team set up a replica of the interrogation room in a building in Palm Desert, California, near one of his residences.
Organizations like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics have denounced that Greenberg's role raises serious ethical concerns, questioning whether he could "participate in any conversation, while still working for the committee, about the possibility of inviting Mr. Gates to testify," as reported by The New York Times.