Washington — Bill Gates will appear before the House Oversight Committee for a transcribed interview as part of the panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, in accordance to a supply accustomed to the plans.
The Microsoft co-founder is scheduled for questioning on June 10, the supply stated.
A spokesperson for Gates stated he “welcomes the opportunity to appear before the Committee.”
“While he never witnessed or participated in any of Epstein’s illegal conduct, he is looking forward to answering all the committee’s questions to support their important work,” the spokesperson stated.
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the panel’s Republican chairman, wrote to Gates on March 3 requesting he appear for the interview.
“Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, and documents obtained by the Committee, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” Comer wrote on the time.
Gates, who’s one of the world’s wealthiest folks, apologized in February to the workers of his philanthropic Gates Foundation for his ties to Epstein. He stated their relationship lasted from 2011 by means of 2014.
In July 2013, Epstein sent himself a pair of emails containing unverified allegations that Gates had extramarital “sex with Russian girls” that resulted in a sexually transmitted an infection requiring antibiotic remedy. In one e mail, Epstein claimed Gates additionally sought to “surreptitiously give” antibiotics to his then-wife, Melinda Gates.
A spokesperson for Gates advised CBS News in January that the “claims 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.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that on the identical worker city corridor the place Gates apologized to workers, he admitted that he “did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities.”
Later emails and textual content messages present Epstein sought to rekindle his friendship with Gates, and safe an funding.
Epstein needed to pitch Gates on a donor-advised fund, a tax-deductible charitable car that Epstein needed to function, however it by no means materialized.
Text messages from 2017 launched by congressional investigators in November present Epstein speaking with an obvious adviser to Gates in regards to the proposal.
The adviser stated Gates was within the concept, however stated Melinda Gates did not need him to talk with Epstein. The two divorced in 2021.
“He wants to talk to you but his wife won’t let him,” the adviser stated. In a sequence of texts a minute later, the adviser stated of Gates, “he loves you,” “he says hi,” and “he feels bad about the [donor advised fund] btw He thought great idea but wife wouldn’t allow.”
Gates is the most recent in a procession of well-known and highly effective figures to sit for depositions before the Oversight Committee’s Epstein investigators.
Others who’ve appeared embrace former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire Les Wexner and convicted intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
The committee has additionally requested interviews with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler and Doug Band, Bill Clinton’s longtime aide. Lutnick is scheduled to appear on May 6.
