Bill Gates will appear behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, seeking his voluntary cooperation after U.S. Justice Department documents renewed scrutiny of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The committee’s questions will co
Bill Gates is scheduled to testify behind closed doors on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, a rare appearance before Congress that comes after new Jeffrey Epstein file releases this year pushed fresh questions back into the open.
The House Oversight Committee is seeking Gates’ voluntary cooperation after documents released by the Department of Justice revealed unverified allegations and more detailed accounts of philanthropic coordination between Gates and Epstein than previously known. Wednesday’s appearance will mark the committee’s 15th interview connected to its investigation. with Gates expected to answer questions from both Republicans and Democrats about the extent of his relationship with the late financier.
Epstein’s orbit included other powerful figures—Howard Lutnick and Bill Clinton among them—whose images or video surfaced in materials released from Epstein’s case files by the Justice Department. Gates is now facing a tighter, direct line to the record.
In the most explosive portion of the earlier document release. two draft emails Epstein appears to have written himself in July 2013 described a version of events involving Gates. The notes are unverified. They are addressed from Epstein to himself. saved in Epstein’s email account. and it is not clear who wrote the drafts or whether Epstein ever sent them.
The emails. riddled with typos and vitriol. claim Epstein facilitated sexual encounters for Gates and helped him obtain medication to hide a sexually transmitted infection from his wife. One of those drafts alleges Epstein helped Gates get drugs “in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls” and “illicit trysts. with married women.” That same email references Gates asking Epstein to provide Adderall for bridge tournaments.
The other draft email alleges Gates tearfully asked Epstein to delete messages referencing an STD—“your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda”—and to delete explicit personal details about his penis. The allegations contained in those drafts are unverified and uncorroborated. There is no indication the message was ever shared with Gates or anyone else. and Gates has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein.
Gates has strongly denied the claims. A representative of Gates previously said: “These 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. While Mr. Gates acknowledges that meeting with Epstein was a serious error in judgment. he unequivocally denies any improper conduct related to Epstein and the horrible activities in which Epstein was involved. Mr. Gates never visited Epstein’s island. never attended parties with him. and had no involvement in any illegal activities associated with Epstein.”.
Gates addressed the latest documents in an interview with a CNN affiliate, Nine News in Australia, in February. Speaking about the 2013 draft email, he said, “Apparently Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent, the email is you know, false. So I don’t know what his thinking was there. It just reminds me. you know. every minute I spent with him I regret and I. you know. apologize that I did that.”.
He added: “It’s factually true that I was only at dinners, you know, I never went to the island. I never met any women. And so, you know, the more that comes out, the more clear it’ll be that although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior.”
Gates has previously said he regrets meeting Epstein. In 2021, he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there.”
On Tuesday. the House Oversight Chair James Comer said the closed-door session would include no limits on the scope of questions. “We just have questions. I’m not accusing Bill Gates of any wrongdoing. We know that he spent a lot of time with Mr. Epstein. We just want to ask what he knew and if he saw certain things,” Comer said. “Anything’s on the table,” the Kentucky Republican added, saying Gates may not be “eager” to testify but is “willing.”.
There is a wide paper trail in the material the Justice Department released. More than 3 million pages contain several hundred references to Gates. including emails detailing schedules with meetings. meals. proposed phone calls. and attempts by Epstein to set up meetings with Gates. The documented interactions all occurred after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on prostitution-related charges. including a dinner the pair shared in 2010 and a meeting in Norway in August 2012.
Gates also wrote to Epstein. In December 2014. Gates told Epstein. “I enjoyed the breakfast a lot.” Epstein replied in part. “as usual everyone liked=you alot” and invited Gates to Epstein’s private island. which Gates has maintained he never visited. The record includes no indication Gates accepted that invite.
Even as Gates disputes the underlying allegations, the committee’s questions are not limited to whether misconduct occurred—they center on what Gates knew and what he did or did not see as Epstein’s convictions and criminal case history were already in place.
Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia. the top Democrat on the House oversight panel. said Tuesday that it is “very concerning” Gates maintained a relationship with Epstein after the late sex offender’s conviction. “We’ve said we don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat or who you are. The fact that Mr. Gates still had a relationship with Mr. Epstein even after knowing about the conviction, knowing actually what he had done, I think is very concerning. So we want to know what did Mr. Gates know, who else was around in that orbit, and why Mr. Gates continued to have a relationship with Mr. Epstein,” Garcia said.
All of it now funnels into Wednesday’s closed-door testimony, where Gates will be pressed directly by lawmakers on the timeline, the nature of his contact with Epstein, and the boundaries he says were crossed—or not crossed at all.
Bill Gates House Oversight Committee Jeffrey Epstein DOJ documents closed-door testimony James Comer Robert Garcia Adderall Melinda Gates