Inside Bill Gates' Epstein closed-door testimony

[0:00] Glad to be here voluntarily to testify to help with the committee's work. I'll start with an opening [0:06] statement in the hearing room. I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, [0:13] important work of the committee to find justice for the victims. Lawmakers have a lot of questions [0:18] for Bill Gates. He appears in the Epstein files hundreds of times. He's referenced in emails and [0:24] phone call invitations and calendar invites. But the most explosive allegations are these [0:29] two draft emails that Epstein allegedly was going to send himself but never sent. These are [0:34] unverified claims where Epstein claims that he helped Gates to be set up with women and he also [0:40] helped Gates get medication to hide a sexually transmitted infection from his then wife Melinda [0:46] Gates. Now Bill Gates denies those claims vehemently, says they are completely false, [0:51] but has said he regrets ever interacting with Gates. In his opening remarks, [0:55] Bill Gates told lawmakers he never saw, he was never aware of Epstein's crimes and that he himself, [1:01] Gates, never victimized anyone. He gave a little bit of a background on how they got introduced back [1:06] in 2011. He said that their interactions for the most part were pretty limited and that all of that [1:11] came to an end in December of 2014. This is something else that Gates told lawmakers. He said, [1:17] I learned Epstein had become aware of sensitive information about my personal life, [1:22] including the fact that I had been unfaithful in my marriage. Epstein was working to use information [1:27] about my infidelities in addition to many lies that he layered on top to pressure me to re-engage [1:33] with him. I think what we can say right now is that Mr. Gates does believe that Mr. Epstein would [1:38] write emails that were oftentimes untrue. I think he spoke to that in some of the questioning that he [1:44] denies some obviously some of those claims and that he felt that Mr. Epstein would write emails to [1:50] himself and just say things that were not true or didn't. This has obviously been a really [1:56] embarrassing ordeal for Bill Gates. I'm told by a source that his lawyer jumped in at one point and [2:01] said he's not going to answer questions about affairs that are not directly related to the Epstein [2:06] saga. Epstein also, I think, is aware that his reputation has taken a hit. He said, quote, [2:12] meeting with Epstein was a grave error in judgment. And he also said he's now being more careful about the [2:17] kinds of people that he associates with. I found him cooperative and I found him to be pretty [2:24] credible. The sad thing is he basically admitted that he carried out a relationship with Epstein [2:31] even after he knew that Epstein had been convicted of a sexual crime. And the reason he did it is he [2:38] said Epstein knew a lot of billionaires, a lot of donors, and he wanted to raise money from them [2:43] for his philanthropies. And this just shows some of the moral bankruptcy at the time where it's not [2:51] that Gates committed any illegal act, but he was willing to overlook the sexual crime to raise money [2:58] for his charities. Did he ever attend, as far as you know, any of these parties where there were these [3:08] underage girls or women who were being trafficked? Was there any, I mean, he has admitted Gates to [3:14] infidelities, but I don't think he's admitted to infidelities to cheating on his wife with any of [3:19] the women who were trafficked by Epstein, right? Yes. And he was very clear. I asked him point blank, [3:26] did Epstein ever introduce him to any women underage or just women who he had affairs with? And he said, [3:32] absolutely not. And he said he never was on the island and that Epstein did not in any way facilitate [3:38] any of his affairs. Three of the four House Republicans who joined you to force the release [3:47] of the Epstein files are soon no longer going to be in office. Obviously, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor [3:53] Green quit after she had a falling out with Trump. Thomas Massey lost his seat after he had a falling [3:58] out with Trump and Trump endorsed his opponent. And now Congresswoman Nancy Mace is leaving. [4:03] She ran for governor in South Carolina. She finished fifth in the Republican primary. Obviously, [4:09] Trump supported the woman who won. There were obviously different factors contributing to all [4:15] these exits, but the Mace has made it clear that she thinks the Epstein episode cost her politically. [4:21] I guess Lauren Boebert is the only one left right now. Are you concerned about losing any other [4:27] Republicans who were allies in pushing transparency for this? It's sad to me that they paid that price. [4:34] I mean, some people in my own party sometimes criticize me when I say that they showed a lot [4:39] of courage. But the reality is they did. I mean, Thomas Massey, Marjorie Taylor Green literally gave up [4:45] their seats. And I believe Nancy Mace that it hurt her among Republicans. And all of them stood with [4:51] survivors. Look, I got a million dollars or so spent against me because of my work on Epstein and also [4:56] calling for a billionaire's tax. I got 62 percent of the vote and a Democratic challenger got six [5:02] percent. But I'm running in a Democratic constituency. But being a Republican taking on Donald Trump [5:07] was a act of political courage. Bill Gates wrapped up in this in in a way that, you know, [5:14] we know was related to the demise of his own marriage. Melinda French Gates has been out there [5:19] in some cases asked questions about his behavior in ways that I think raised some eyebrows. What [5:26] stood out to you about what Gates told the committee and what it says about, I mean, the fact that he was [5:32] there for as many hours as he was? Yeah. You know, I don't know that there are going to be specific [5:38] leads that the committee is going to follow up on as far as we know right now. And we'll know for sure [5:43] once the transcripts come out, whether he referred the committee to specific people that he saw [5:48] engaging in bad behavior. But what I think we are seeing today is a full pattern of powerful people, [5:57] people who were very close to Jeffrey Epstein, people who spent a lot of time with him, [6:01] certainly wanted to be invited to all of his dinners in New York City. Now, saying years later, [6:06] we never saw we were never aware of the crimes that he was committing. And I think if I'm Bill Gates, [6:12] I'm pretty lucky that the emails where some of the more salacious and unverified claims about Bill [6:18] Gates appear to have been written by Epstein to himself and the fact that Epstein is dead. I mean, [6:23] you can deny and deny and deny if you are convinced that there is no physical proof to the contrary. [6:29] But I thought Bill Gates talking about how he was initially introduced to Epstein was really [6:34] interesting. He said it was in 2011 and he did know that Epstein had some prior legal issues, [6:41] but he decided not to scrutinize those matters further. I mean, those legal issues, to be clear, [6:47] is that Jeffrey Epstein in 2009 was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. These are [6:53] not just minor legal issues. He was a registered sex offender. So I just think the sort of willful [6:59] ignorance of powerful people when money is involved is a conversation we need to keep having. [7:05] Yeah. Jody, I mean, what do you think it says? I mean, the story, this is, of course, [7:10] part of the book that your colleagues, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan are, it's going to [7:13] be a blockbuster. Let me tell you, it's coming out in a couple of weeks. They wrote that J.D. Vance, [7:19] the vice president, was particularly panicked about what was going on and that he even floated [7:24] enlisting Tucker Carlson to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in prison. Vance thought that it might [7:31] help the president if Maxwell was willing to state Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing. [7:35] Epstein, what does this all say? Well, I was riveted by Maggie and Jonathan's [7:42] excerpt. Their book is called Regime Change. I think it is going to be a blockbuster. [7:47] And what was so interesting was that you could really see President Trump losing control [7:53] of the Epstein story paragraph by paragraph as they give this internal account of the Trump team [8:00] trying to deal with it. And part of what is so fascinating about it is that, listen, we're living [8:06] through a presidentially led backlash to Me Too, right? The president has appointed himself the chief [8:13] opponent of this movement. But then what happened is it turned out that people really cared about the [8:20] Epstein files. They were grossed out by the idea of young women being manipulated by the powerful [8:29] and the wealthy. And part of the lasting power of Me Too is that there's a lot of empathy, especially [8:36] for very young victims. And so to see the president sort of hit by, you could almost call it a backlash [8:45] to the backlash was really interesting.