Bill Gates is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door interview tied to the Jeffrey Epstein files, after the Justice Department released documents detailing his meetings and communications with the disgraced financie
WASHINGTON — Bill Gates is set to sit before a congressional panel on Wednesday, stepping into the center of a case that has already pulled in powerful names and kept coming back to the same troubling question: what did they know, and when did they know it.
The House Oversight Committee is scheduled to interview the Microsoft co-founder behind closed doors as part of its investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein files. In a process the committee has used with other witnesses, transcripts are often released later.
Republican U.S. Rep. James Comer, the committee chairman, formally requested that Gates testify after Gates appeared multiple times in a trove of documents released by the Justice Department as part of its Epstein probe.
Those files depict a wide reach—calendar entries for meetings between Gates and Epstein. email correspondence between the two about philanthropic projects. and photos of Gates at events where Epstein was also present. The professional relationship began in 2011. three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor. and lasted until at least late 2014. according to the documents.
Epstein was federally indicted in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. The Justice Department alleged that Epstein built a vast network of underage girls—some as young as 14—for him to sexually abuse between 2002 and 2005. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Gates, who chairs the Gates Foundation, has not been accused of wrongdoing connected to Epstein. He has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of girls and said they met only to discuss philanthropy. He has called his association with Epstein “a huge mistake.”
The records also appear to have left personal fallout. Both Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have said his association with Epstein created tension in their marriage.
The Gates Foundation has acknowledged that the scrutiny reached inside the organization. In February. it said a small number of employees had met with Epstein based on his “claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health.” The foundation said employees never created a charitable fund together with Epstein and that the foundation made no payments to him.
As the investigation widened, the foundation said its CEO, Mark Suzman, commissioned an external review in March to examine its past engagement with Epstein.
The committee’s closed-door interviews have already extended beyond Gates. In February. at another deposition. former President Bill Clinton faced more than six hours of questioning from lawmakers about his association with Epstein more than two decades ago. Epstein had visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency. and Clinton flew occasionally on Epstein’s private jet.
Clinton told lawmakers he had seen no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse and that he stopped associating with him long before Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
Democrats on the House committee have pushed for testimony from President Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with Epstein. Republicans on the committee have said they have not come across evidence that Trump did anything wrong during his well-documented friendship with Epstein.
For Gates. the hearing arrives after documents laid out a timeline that begins in 2011—years after Epstein’s Florida guilty plea—and stretches at least until late 2014. In that span. lawmakers will now press him directly on what his meetings. emails about philanthropic projects. and presence at shared events meant. and whether he understood more than he has said.
Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.
Bill Gates House Oversight Committee Jeffrey Epstein Epstein files James Comer Gates Foundation Mark Suzman Melinda French Gates Bill Clinton Donald Trump