Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was confronted on Tuesday about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s allegations that he contracted a sexually transmitted disease from a Russian hooker on his island.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) released more than 3 million pages of files related to Epstein, which included a July 2013 email draft where Epstein claimed Gates asked him to delete messages about an STD and how he sought antibiotics to secretly give to his then-wife, Melinda. Gates denied ever going to Epstein’s island or meeting with any women during an interview with 9 News Australia’s Charles Croucher.
“Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent, the email was false. So I don’t know what his thinking was there, you know, was he trying to attack me in some way? But it just reminds me, every minute I spent with him, I regret and I apologize that I did that,” Gates said.
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Croucher asked Gates why Epstein would write down such an allegation about him.
“It’s factually true that I was only at dinners. I never went to the island, I never met any women and 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 continued.
The DOJ cautioned that the email may contain “fake or falsely submitted” material, given that it included items submitted by the public over several years. The release of these files complied with The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the DOJ to make all un-redacted documents related to Epstein accessible to the public.
A spokesperson for Gates said the allegations were “absolutely absurd and completely false.”
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Melinda French Gates, who divorced Gates in 2021, told NPR’s “Wild Card” podcast that her ex-husband needs to answer for the Epstein allegations.
A separate email in the release appeared to be a draft where Epstein announced his resignation from the Gates Foundation, in which Epstein claimed he helped Gates “get drugs” to “deal with consequences of sex with [R]ussian girls.”
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