Bill Gates Says Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein Was a ‘Huge Mistake’

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Wednesday addressed his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as a “huge mistake.”

Speaking to CNN, Gates said he had “several dinners” with Epstein about 10 years ago. Epstein, a disgraced financier accused of sex trafficking and child abuse, was found dead in a jail cell in Manhattan in 2019.

Those dinners occurred years after Epstein was convicted and sentenced to soliciting prostitution from a minor. Epstein in 2008 pleaded guilty to the charges, serving 13 months in custody but with extensive work release.

Gates, one of the wealthiest people in the world, told the network that when he met with Epstein, they discussed the prospect of receiving billions of dollars in philanthropy but ended the relationship after it “looked like that wasn’t a real thing.”

“I had several dinners with him, you know, hoping that what he said about getting billions of philanthropy for global health through contacts that he had might emerge, and when it looked like that wasn’t a real thing, that relationship ended,” Gates said in the interview, adding that it was a “huge mistake” to meet with Epstein.

“But it was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of, you know, being there, there were lots of others in that same situation, but I made a mistake,” he said.

In 2019, speaking to Axios, Gates said that he regretted having met with Epstein after the financier’s death. – READ MORE