Gates denied any involvement or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, emphasizing that their relationship was based on philanthropic initiatives. But he said that in retrospect, his ties to Epstein “definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation,” according to a recording obtained by the Wall Street Journal. 

Gates’s connection to Epstein has been extensively documented in years past. His latest apology came after millions more files on the convicted sex offender were released by the Justice Department, which further detailed the two men’s relationship. 

Those files included emails Epstein sent to himself in 2013 that appear to be drafts styled as a resignation letter from Gates’s then-close associate, Boris Nikolic. In the drafts, Epstein wrote of resigning because he had gotten “caught up in a severe marital dispute” between the billionaire and his then-wife, Melinda Gates. The two ended their marriage in 2021. 

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Earlier this month, Gates described the draft emails as “false” and denied any wrongdoing during an interview with 9News Australia. 

“I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?… It just reminds me that every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize I did that,” Gates said. “The focus was always [that] he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end, and I’ve said many times, but I’ll say again, I was foolish to spend time with him.” 

The 2013 emails from Epstein appeared to be written in reference to Nikolic’s move to leave Gates’s private office, with Epstein inserting himself into the negotiations by seeming to draft a resignation note for Nikolic. Nikolic was a physicist and science adviser to Gates. In the resignation letter, Epstein suggested that Gates was having an extramarital affair and seeking illicit drugs.

“In my role as his right hand I had been asked on mulitple occassion and in hindsight, wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate, to the ethically unsound and had been repeatedly asked to do other things that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal,” the emails read, describing activities such as “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with [R]ussian girls, to [facilitating] his illicit trysts, with married women, to being asked to provide adderal[l].”

Gates said Tuesday that 2014 was the last time he met with Epstein. 

At least two senior officials with the Gates Foundation remained in contact with Epstein until late 2017, according to a 2019 investigation by the New York Times. Nikolic was one of two members of Gates’s inner circle who were close to Epstein and at times functioned as intermediaries between the men, according to the report. The report also detailed Epstein’s pitch to the staff of the Gates Foundation and JPMorgan, in which he proposed creating a charitable fund focused on health projects around the world, saying he could round up sweeping donations from his wealthy friends and JPMorgan’s richest clients. Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, a former senior JPMorgan Chase executive, was involved in discussions with Epstein, per the report, with 2023 court filings further detailing the two men’s relationship. 

Gates said this week that Nikolic told Epstein about several affairs the Microsoft founder had had over the years. 

“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist whom I met through business activities,” Gates admitted in comments to staff, appearing to reference a woman whose ties to Epstein and relationship with the Microsoft founder were detailed in a previous Wall Street Journal report. 

Previous reporting over the years determined that Gates donated $2 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab at Epstein’s request. That donation was made in 2014, after Epstein pleaded guilty and served jail time beginning in 2008 to two state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution. 

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“He was introduced to me as somebody who could bring more people into philanthropy,” Gates said in 2019. “I’d say I didn’t have a … business or personal relationship.” 

Epstein also played a crucial role in the grants the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave to a United Nations-affiliated think tank, according to a 2020 investigation by Norwegian business newspaper, DN. Epstein introduced Gates to personnel at the International Peace Institute during a 2013 meeting in France. There, the think tank put forward a proposal on how IPI could help Gates in fighting polio. The Gates Foundation subsequently awarded IPI over $8 million in the following years, and at times, kept Epstein in the loop about donations, according to the investigation.