Overview
- The House Oversight Committee released a transcript this week of Bill Gates’s closed-door interview from June 10, in which he said Jeffrey Epstein appeared to be 'brainstorming' ways to use knowledge of Gates’s affairs as leverage.
- Gates told lawmakers he met Epstein about a dozen times between roughly 2011 and 2014 for fundraising discussions and that he cut ties when Epstein failed to deliver promised donor access.
- The transcript records Gates naming three extramarital partners—Mila Antonova, Karima Nigmatulina and Dr. Alice Jacobs Nesselrodt—and saying Epstein’s draft emails mixed true and false claims to manufacture leverage.
- Gates insisted he was never blackmailed, never saw criminal conduct by Epstein and 'never victimized anyone,' while the Justice Department previously said it found no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent people.
- Lawmakers say the committee’s probe continues and could produce further interviews and document releases, a process that may deepen scrutiny of how wealthy donors and advisers vetted Epstein and affected philanthropic accountability.