Bill Gates to face House probe over Epstein ties

Bill Gates was scheduled for a closed-door, transcribed interview before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, putting the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist at the center of Congress’s latest push to examine the Epstein case. Lawmakers want to know what Gates’s contacts with Jeffrey Epstein were, and what those ties reveal about a network of wealthy and powerful associates that continues to draw scrutiny years after Epstein’s death in 2019.

The committee’s inquiry reaches beyond Gates himself. Chairman James Comer said the panel is investigating possible federal mismanagement in the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, a review that has become one of the most politically charged oversight efforts on Capitol Hill. Gates was one of seven people Comer named in letters sent March 3 seeking transcribed interviews, and Comer initially proposed a May 19 date before the interview was set for June 10.

The interview followed a June 9 closed-door session with Lesley Groff, Epstein’s former executive assistant, underscoring how the committee has been building a record with witnesses tied to Epstein’s inner circle. The panel’s interest has been sharpened by recently released Justice Department documents and public reporting about Gates’s interactions with Epstein, including travel on Epstein’s private jet and photographs from the period when the two men knew each other.

Gates has tried to contain the fallout. In February, he apologized to Gates Foundation staff for his ties to Epstein and said the relationship was a mistake, while denying knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. That denial now sits alongside Congress’s effort to determine whether federal authorities missed warning signs, looked away too long, or failed to act on information that should have triggered stronger action.

Because the proceeding was closed to the public, the immediate record was limited. But the appearance itself carried weight: one of the world’s most recognizable business and philanthropic figures was drawn into the same investigative lane as others whose relationships with Epstein have been dissected in public and in government files.

For Congress, the Epstein inquiry has become more than a question about one man’s network. It is part of a broader effort to show oversight over one of the most notorious U.S. criminal scandals in recent history, and to press for answers about what federal investigators knew, when they knew it, and why so much remained hidden for so long.