Details emerge from Bill Gates' testimony in Epstein probe

[0:00] And happening right now on Capitol Hill, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is appearing before a House Oversight Committee, [0:06] and he is there to answer questions about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. [0:11] The billionaire's name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, but he denies involvement in any criminal activity. [0:19] Gates spoke to reporters before going into the hearing. [0:23] I'm glad to be here voluntarily to testify to help with the committee's work. [0:29] I'll start with an opening statement in the hearing room. [0:33] I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, important work of the committee to find justice for the victims. [0:41] Now let's go live to CBS News congressional correspondent Nicole Killian, who's outside the committee's closed doors right now. [0:48] Nicole, thanks for your time. What do you know about the hearing so far? [0:52] Well, it just got underway a short time ago, and we did receive a copy of Bill Gates' opening statement. [1:01] In that opening statement, he says, [1:04] I want to state very clearly, I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct. [1:11] I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. [1:14] He goes on to say, I've never victimized anyone, and then adds, while he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, [1:21] I was never interested in that and never reciprocated. [1:24] And now Gates goes on in that opening statement to say that he first met Jeffrey Epstein back in 2011, [1:33] that their relationship spanned about three years until 2014, [1:37] and that they had a series of conversations with respect to some of his philanthropic work around global health. [1:45] He says that, you know, a lot of that was aimed at potential donor meetings and trying to raise funds, [1:52] although he never did so with money from Jeffrey Epstein. [1:56] In fact, in his statement, he says that their conversations eventually reached a dead end. [2:02] Now, it is worth pointing out that Bill Gates notes after that point, after he severed ties with Epstein, [2:09] he says that he learned that Epstein became aware of, quote, [2:13] sensitive information about his personal life, including the fact that he had been unfaithful in his marriage. [2:20] He goes on to say, quote, [2:21] these affairs had nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family. [2:27] And then he notes that he believes that Jeffrey Epstein was, quote, [2:32] working to use information about my infidelities to, quote, pressure me to re-engage with him. [2:39] So in essence, he's accusing Jeffrey Epstein, obviously, who is no longer with us, [2:45] of trying to use this information about his extramarital affairs to try to re-engage him [2:50] and pressure him back into some type of relationship. [2:54] So that is what is coming out of Bill Gates' opening statement. [2:58] Of course, we heard from a number of members of the House Oversight Committee ahead of this transcribed interview, [3:05] which, again, is going on behind closed doors. [3:08] It is not being videotaped. [3:09] But in essence, Chairman James Comer told me ahead of this that anything is on the table with respect to Bill Gates. [3:18] They obviously want a better understanding of the nature of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, [3:23] which I just outlined in his opening statement. [3:26] Democrats, of course, have many questions as well. [3:28] So we do expect this to continue for several more hours. [3:32] And speaking of Chairman James Comer, Nicole, [3:34] he also mentioned before the hearing that he wants to get some more people to testify. [3:38] We've heard from several people already when it comes to this ongoing probe. [3:43] But do we know who else could appear in this? [3:48] Yeah, that's right. [3:48] Well, I would note that things have really been ramping up with the House Oversight Committee. [3:53] I mean, it was just a couple of weeks ago that we heard from former Attorney General Pam Bondi, [3:58] who really put a lot of the onus on the now acting Attorney General Todd Blanche [4:04] in terms of saying that he really had control over the situation with respect to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. [4:12] And so just today we heard Chairman James Comer say that he is now working to get Blanche in. [4:17] Now it's unclear in what capacity, whether that would be to testify publicly, [4:22] whether it would be for a deposition or a transcribed interview like the one going on behind me, [4:27] where it would be behind closed doors and not videotaped. [4:30] We did hear from the ranking member of this committee, Robert Garcia, [4:33] who said it is critical that Blanche's testimony, if it does occur, happens on tape. [4:40] Of course, we know that President Trump not too long ago nominated Todd Blanche to be the Attorney General. [4:47] So we will see how that plays out. [4:50] But obviously he is a key witness, a key person that this committee would like to talk to, among others. [4:57] Okay, Nicole Killian, thank you so much for your time today.