Bill Gates told the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein gathered enough damaging information about his extramarital affairs to contemplate blackmail, and that Gates knew it. A transcript released Tuesday shows the 70-year-old Microsoft co-founder naming three women he carried on affairs with during his marriage to Melinda French Gates, while insisting he never witnessed or took part in Epstein's criminal conduct.
The admission lands in the middle of a broader congressional push to map the full network of powerful men who orbited Epstein for years, and who now claim they saw nothing wrong. Gates is the biggest name to sit for questioning so far, and the transcript makes clear that lawmakers arrived armed with documents, emails, and a 2013 memo Epstein wrote to himself.
What emerged is a portrait of a billionaire who knowingly cultivated a relationship with a man already convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, used an employee as a cover story for at least one affair, and then spent years trying to keep the whole arrangement from detonating his marriage and reputation.
Gates identified three women by name: bridge player Mila Antonova, nuclear physicist Karima Nigmatulina, and medical entrepreneur Dr. Alice Jacobs Nesselrodt. All three affairs took place while Gates was married to Melinda, who filed for divorce in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.
The New York Post reported that Gates was accused of more than 20 extramarital liaisons during divorce proceedings, a figure that dwarfs the three names he offered Congress. Gates confessed to affairs with at least two Russian women, at least one of whom Epstein later used in an attempted extortion scheme.
Gates admitted he used his own employee, Boris Nikolic, as an alibi while meeting one of the Russian women. That arrangement backfired: Nikolic discovered the affairs precisely because Gates dragged him into the cover story. Nikolic later told the Wall Street Journal he "deeply" regrets associating with Epstein and called him "a master manipulator."
When congressmen presented Gates with a July 2013 email that appeared to show Epstein was aware of the Nesselrodt affair, Gates acknowledged the relationship on the record:
"Well, there was a time when I had an affair with Dr Jacobs [Nesselrodt]. So that may fit that category."
That kind of grudging concession, admitting only what the documents already proved, ran through the transcript. Gates did not volunteer. He confirmed.
The most damaging material came from Epstein's own pen. A 2013 memo Epstein wrote to himself, released as part of DOJ files earlier this year, lashed out at Gates for trying to end their relationship. The memo claimed Gates had caught a sexually transmitted infection from "sex with Russian girls" and that Epstein had been asked to arrange antibiotics for Gates to secretly give his then-wife Melinda.
Gates flatly denied having an STD:
"I never had an STD... I've said I may have indicated some concern about whether I had an STD; I don't recall that."
That careful phrasing, "I may have indicated some concern", leaves a gap wide enough to notice. He denied the diagnosis but conceded the worry. Melinda French Gates has separately described how meeting Epstein left her with nightmares, adding another dimension to the personal wreckage the relationship produced.
Separately, Epstein drafted an email, apparently on behalf of Nikolic, who was leaving the company, that read like a blackmail rehearsal. The email, part of DOJ-released files, stated:
"I feel it would be dishonest to myself and my future from helping Bill to get drugs in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women, to being asked to provide Adderall for bridge tournaments."
Gates described that email as "an attempt at blackmail" designed to give Epstein a better negotiating position on Nikolic's behalf. He told the committee he saw through it immediately and instructed Larry Cohen, the top person at Gates Ventures, to refuse any payment.
"I communicated to my key person, top person at Gates Ventures, Larry Cohen, that we were never going to pay anything."
Gates first met Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to charges involving a minor. Gates testified that he maintained the relationship over a four-year period because Epstein promised to lure lucrative donors for Gates' global health charities. As Fox News reported, DOJ documents indicate the relationship included calendar entries, email correspondence, and photos documenting Gates' interactions with Epstein between 2011 and 2014.
Gates severed ties in 2014, he said, because Epstein's promises "led to nothing." Not because of moral revulsion. Not because of the nature of Epstein's prior conviction. Because the fundraising pipeline dried up.
That timeline matters. Gates told lawmakers he was "so focused on the possibility of raising funds for global health" that he "allowed that goal to override my better judgment." The framing casts the relationship as a cost-benefit miscalculation rather than a moral failure, a distinction the transcript makes harder to sustain the longer you read it.
After Gates cut him off, Epstein came back with a bill. He demanded "reimbursement" for expenses related to one of the women Gates had an affair with. Gates refused. But the demand itself shows how deeply Epstein had embedded himself in the logistics of Gates' personal life, arranging encounters, covering tracks, and keeping receipts.
Warren Buffett has said he cut off contact with Gates after the Epstein files surfaced, a signal that the reputational fallout extends well beyond the hearing room.
Rep. Robert Garcia framed the committee's interest plainly, as Breitbart reported: "We want to know what did Mr. Gates know, who else was around that orbit, and why Mr. Gates continued to have a relationship with Mr. Epstein."
Gates answered the last question most directly. He wanted money for his charities. He got nothing. He regrets it.
"Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise that I did that."
The first two questions, what Gates knew and who else was involved, remain far less settled. The transcript shows Gates confirming only what documents already proved. He denied the STD claim but acknowledged the worry. He named three affair partners but was accused of more than 20 during his divorce. He called the blackmail email what it was but insisted Epstein "never blackmailed me", then immediately added that the emails raise "a serious probability that he contemplated blackmailing me."
DOJ files released in January included several pictures of Gates posing with women whose faces were redacted. Just The News noted that Gates appeared with Epstein in estate photos released by the DOJ in December 2025, and that Epstein claimed in drafted emails from July 2013 that Gates contracted an STI and asked Epstein to facilitate illicit sexual encounters and purchase drugs.
A Gates spokesperson maintained that Gates "unequivocally denies any improper conduct related to Epstein and the horrible activities in which Epstein was involved." Gates himself told a town hall audience, in remarks reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, "I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit."
The House Oversight Committee's broader Epstein investigation continues, with other prominent figures also called to testify. The committee has not announced whether it will seek further testimony from Gates or pursue additional witnesses connected to the affairs he disclosed.
Meanwhile, unresolved questions about Epstein's death continue to shadow every new disclosure, reinforcing public suspicion that the full story of who knew what, and when, has never been told.
Gates testified voluntarily. He expressed regret. He named names, some of them, at least. But the transcript reveals a man who spent four years socializing with a convicted sex offender, used subordinates to cover extramarital affairs, and broke off the relationship only when the charitable donations failed to materialize.
The regret is noted. The apology is on the record. What remains missing is any evidence that Gates, or anyone in his orbit, ever reported what Epstein was doing, flagged the blackmail attempt to law enforcement, or took any step that might have shortened the timeline of Epstein's crimes.
When the most powerful people in the room treat a convicted predator as a networking opportunity and only call it a mistake after the documents go public, accountability isn't a word that applies. It's a word that's owed.
