Gates tells Congress Epstein meeting was a grave error in judgment

Bill Gates told Congress that meeting Jeffrey Epstein was “a grave error in judgment,” putting renewed attention on how a convicted sex offender gained access to one of the world’s most influential philanthropists and the institutions around him. Gates appeared behind closed doors before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, as lawmakers pressed ahead with a broader examination of the federal government’s handling of the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases.

The hearing came after committee chairman James Comer requested Gates’s testimony, citing Justice Department documents that included emails and calendar entries showing meetings between Gates and Epstein from 2011 to 2014. Gates has said his relationship with Epstein began in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 18 months in jail. Gates said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and that he “should never have met with Epstein in the first place.”

Beyond the personal fallout, lawmakers are using Gates’s testimony to probe how Epstein kept moving through elite circles despite a criminal record that should have raised red flags for any serious institution. Gates told lawmakers that he did not fully understand the extent of Epstein’s crimes when he associated with him and that Epstein allegedly tried to use sensitive information about Gates’s personal life, including infidelity during his marriage to Melinda French Gates, as leverage to blackmail him. Gates also said he hoped his testimony would help the committee find justice for victims.

The episode has also turned the spotlight back on the Gates Foundation’s own safeguards. In April, the foundation said it had opened an external review of its past engagement with Epstein and its current vetting of philanthropic partnerships, after Mark Suzman commissioned the review in March. The board said the review was underway and expected an update this summer, underscoring that the issue is not only Gates’s judgment but the standards that govern high-value charitable partnerships.

For Congress, the Gates appearance fits into a larger effort to map Epstein’s network and measure the institutional damage he could do long after his 2008 guilty plea. The question now is not just who met Epstein, but how much access he was able to buy, what vulnerabilities that exposed, and whether philanthropy, politics and federal oversight were all too slow to recognize the risk.