Transcript: Here’s what Bill Gates told lawmakers in his latest Epstein testimony

The US House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released the transcript of a closed-door interview in which Microsoft founder Bill Gates answered questions from lawmakers about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Gates sat for a voluntary hearing on June 10 in Washington, DC, as part of the committee’s ongoing investigation into Epstein and his crimes.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Gates’ spokesman said he was grateful for the opportunity to appear before the House Oversight Committee and, as many members of the committee agreed, to answer all the questions he was asked about the nearly six-hour interview.

“With the full, unredacted transcript now publicly available, anyone can review the information for themselves,” the statement continued, reiterating that Gates “supports the full release of the files and hopes the Oversight Committee’s investigation will lead to justice for the victims.”

See the full transcript here and below, and read on for a summary of key points.

Bill Gates Transcript – US House Oversight Committee by GeekWire

Meetings with Epstein

Gates has described his relationship with Epstein as “one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made,” saying he was a fool to spend time with and that their collaboration, from 2011 to 2014, was “a complete dead end.”

He said Epstein was “definitely not a friend,” and declined Epstein’s social invitations — including to Epstein’s island — as Epstein tried to deepen the relationship.

Asked how often he saw Epstein, Gates gave this breakdown: three times in 2011, twice in 2012, and “five or six” times in 2013 and 2014, noting that some of the 2013 contacts were Skype calls. He described the meetings as informal rather than public.

Gates said that when he first met Epstein, at a January 2011 dinner in New York hosted by his former science adviser Boris Nikolic, he knew that Epstein had been convicted of a sex-related crime but did not look into the details, admitting that he “probably should have.”

He said it wasn’t until 2018, when the Miami Herald described the extent of Epstein’s crimes, that he grasped the magnitude of them and learned that Epstein had registered as a sex offender.

Gates said the main reason he met with Epstein was Epstein’s claim that he could raise billions of dollars for global health from wealthy clients – money that never materialized. He admitted to working with Epstein again on a separate matter, the exit of his mentor Nikolic.

Gates said he was surprised to learn from the leaked files how extensive Nikolic’s relationship with Epstein was, and that reports that Nikolic was named by Epstein would surprise him “very much.”

He said he never saw Epstein engage in any sexual misconduct, never offered to women or little girls, and never visited Epstein’s island, ranch or Florida home.

He acknowledged that “there may have been victims,” ​​citing Epstein’s assistants with whom he was photographed and two front-seat passengers during a private flight from New York to Palm Beach that he took with Epstein — who, he said, flew with him. Gates said it was not Epstein’s 727, and he did not know who owned or leased it.

Gates said he or his representatives have never asked any victim to sign a nondisclosure agreement, or held NDA talks with victims or their attorneys about Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime partner who was convicted in 2021 of helping him sexually assault teenage girls.

Gates testified that Epstein flew to Seattle and visited his Gates Ventures office for a meeting focused on Nikolic’s departure — an Aug. 8 committee meeting. 2013. Gates called it “kind of a useless meeting.”

The next day, Gates emailed that Epstein had been “very helpful,” but told the committee he was only “going along with the story” to close the deal, insisting that Epstein’s involvement actually accomplished nothing.

Gates admitted that he made a $2 million donation to MIT when he knew Epstein, and said he told Epstein about it in hopes of ending Epstein’s requests for Gates to give money on his behalf. He said MIT later investigated and found that the gift had nothing to do with Epstein.

He admitted to three estranged lovers — a competitive bridge player, a nuclear weapons scientist, and a doctor — and said Epstein knew two of them, apparently through Nikolic.

However, Gates said, “I was not arrested,” describing Epstein’s notes as “emails to him” that mixed true and false information and which he said he would not see until the Justice Department released the files. He allowed the draft to look like Epstein’s “thinking” in reference to blackmail.

Microsoft links

Gates said the name Epstein “never came up” in his conversations with former Windows CEO Steven Sinofsky, and that he only learned about Epstein’s interaction with Sinofsky in the press this year. (Sinofsky declined to comment on the revelations and has never been accused of any wrongdoing.)

Regarding other figures connected to Microsoft, Gates said that he had never discussed Epstein with former CTO Nathan Myhrvold, although he had “a vague knowledge of some connection” before.

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(Documents released in 2025 include an open letter and other material from Myhrvold in Epstein’s 2003 “birth book.” A spokesman said Myhrvold knew Epstein from TED conferences and as a contributor to scientific research, has no recollection of the letter, and regrets ever having met him.)

As for the founder of LinkedIn and a member of the board of Microsoft Reid Hoffman, Gates said that Epstein “might have come up” in the conversation, that he has some information about the link “through the MIT connection,” and that both Hoffman and Epstein attended his last meeting with Epstein, a breakfast in December 2014. Hoffman said that he deeply regretted working with Epstein after he was convicted and asked for the full release of the files.

Other things

Rep. Lauren Boebert pressed Gates about Epstein’s interest in eugenics, transhumanism, and genetic engineering, asking if Epstein ever discussed “genetic desires,” “social engineering,” or CRISPR-related DNA research with him, or tried to incorporate any of this into the work of the Gates Foundation. Gates said nothing ever came to light that Epstein had no influence on those plans.

At one point, pressed on whether he would support higher taxes on billionaires, Gates said he paid “more than $14 billion” in taxes and that the US “must find a way to tax the very rich at a higher rate,” including himself.

Defending his foundation’s work, Gates said the purchase of the GAVI vaccine was “the main reason child deaths fell from 10 million a year to less than 5 million a year.” Separately, Gates said the foundation’s work “will be something I will focus on for the rest of my life.”