Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was set to face questioning on Wednesday (June 10, 2026) from U.S. lawmakers over his relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose network of wealthy and powerful associates has fueled years of scrutiny and conspiracy theories.

Mr. Gates, one of the world’s richest men and a leading philanthropist, was due to appear before the House Oversight Committee for a transcribed interview about the disgraced financier, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving underage girls.

The panel asked Mr. Gates to appear after documents released by the Justice Department raised new questions about his contacts with Epstein.

Several other high-profile figures have also appeared before the committee, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

A spokesperson for Mr. Gates told AFP in a statement that the billionaire welcomed the chance to appear before the committee and emphasised he had “never witnessed or participated in Epstein’s illegal conduct.”

The Epstein files include a 2013 draft email in which the financier appeared to suggest he had helped Mr. Gates manage the fallout from extramarital affairs, including by seeking antibiotics after a sexually transmitted infection.

‘Foolish’

Mr. Gates has called the email fake and denied the allegations. He told Australian television in February that he had been “foolish” to associate with Epstein, but said the relationship had nothing to do with the financier’s crimes.

“Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize that I did that… It’s factually true that I was only at dinners. I never went to (his) island, I never met any women,” he said.

Simply appearing in Epstein-related documents does not indicate evidence of a crime.

Mr. Gates told his foundation staff that he had affairs with two Russian women, the Wall Street Journal reported, but denied spending time with Epstein’s victims. He said his relationship with Epstein began in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Mr. Gates reportedly acknowledged that his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, raised concerns about Epstein in 2013, but that he continued the relationship for at least another year.

Ms. Gates, who divorced the Microsoft co-founder in 2021, has said remaining questions about the relationship are for her ex-husband and others to answer.

The House Oversight Committee has been investigating Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a broad examination of how the government handled the case and what it has released from its files.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who also had a years-long relationship with Epstein, initially opposed releasing the files, prompting accusations of a coverup that dogged his first year back in office.

Democrats say they intend to ask what Mr. Gates knew about Epstein’s crimes and the full nature of their relationship.

The interview will not be videotaped, unlike several others released by the committee.

U.S. media reported that Gates had hired former Justice Department lawyer John Moran and received preparation from Jake Greenberg, a former top Oversight Committee investigator, a move that ethics experts said raised questions about optics but did not necessarily violate rules.

Bill Gates has voiced regret over “every minute” he spent with Jeffrey Epstein, even as the Microsoft co-founder’s former wife Melinda said he still had questions to answer over his relationship with the convicted sexual offender.

The latest tranche of documents released by the U.S. Justice Department last week contained emails between many prominent figures and Epstein, often revealing warm friendships, illicit financial dealings and private photos.

In a draft email among the documents, Epstein alleged Mr. Gates engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with Mr. Gates ranged 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.”

“Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise,” Mr. Gates, a billionaire philanthropist, told 9News Australia in an interview broadcast Wednesday (February 4, 2026).

“That email was never sent. The email is false,” he said. “I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?”

A Gates spokesperson issued a similar denial after the fresh cache of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, were released.

“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the spokesperson said.

Melinda French Gates told U.S. National Public Radio in an interview that the document dump brought back “memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.”

“For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up,” she said.

“Whatever questions remain there of what — I can’t even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me.”

The couple divorced in 2021.

Mr. Bill Gates told 9News that he met Epstein in 2011 and had several dinners with him over three years, but never visited his Caribbean island and didn’t have relations with women.

“The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end,” he said.

Someone’s name in the Epstein files does not imply any wrongdoing, but the documents revealed connections between Epstein and public figures who have often downplayed — or even denied — such ties.