Microsoft founder Bill Gates said he “shouldn’t have had dinners” with Jeffrey Epstein during an interview with Australia’s ABC 7 .30.
Gates and Epstein, the powerful financier who was accused of child sex trafficking before dying, of an apparent suicide, in a New York City jail cell while awaiting trial, had met numerous times beginning in 2011, according to a New York Times report. But Gates had told CNN he only had dinners with him for potential philanthropic opportunities.
Epstein plead guilty to two state prostitution charges and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 – well before Gates’ meetings with him.
Presenter Sarah Ferguson grilled Gates, asking if he “regrets the relationship he maintained” with Epstein, going against his ex-wife Melinda Gates’ advice.
Ferguson asked if Melinda was warning Gates about Epstein’s “way of sexually compromising people.”
“No,” Gates said, and he repeated that he regrets “having dinner with him.” He also denied there was a relationship of any kind between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Epstein.
Gates made similar comments to CNN in August 2021.
“It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there,” Gates said to Anderson Cooper.
Gates said in the CNN interview he met with Epstein to raise more money to deal with global health issues.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/30/business/bill-gates-jeffrey-epstein-dinner-regrets/index.html