Transcript: Here’s what Bill Gates told lawmakers in his latest Epstein testimony

See the full transcript here and below, and read on for a summary of key points.

Bill Gates Transcript – US House Oversight Committee by GeekWire

Asked how often he saw Epstein, Gates gave this breakdown: three times in 2011, twice in 2012, and “five or six” times in each of 2013 and 2014, noting some of the 2013 contacts were Skype calls. He described the meetings as informal rather than public.

Gates said the primary reason he met with Epstein was Epstein’s claim that he could raise billions of dollars for global health from wealthy clients — money that never materialized. He admitted to working with Epstein again on a separate matter, the exit of his mentor Nikolic.

He did acknowledge he “may have been in the presence of victims,” ​​citing Epstein assistants he was photographed with and two who sat in the front cabin during a private New York-to-Palm Beach flight he took with Epstein — the one time, he said, that he flew with him. Gates said it was not Epstein’s 727, and he did not know who owned or leased it.

Gates acknowledged making a $2 million donation to MIT during the period he knew Epstein, and said he told Epstein about it hoping to end Epstein’s requests that Gates give money in his name. He said MIT later investigated and found that the gift had nothing to do with Epstein.

However, Gates said, “I was not blackmailed,” characterizing Epstein’s notes as “emails to himself” that mixed true and false information and that he said he did not see until the Justice Department released the files. He allowed the draft to look like Epstein’s “thinking” in reference to blackmail.

Gates said the name Epstein “never came up” in his conversations with former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, and that he learned of Epstein’s reported dealings with Sinofsky only through the press this year. (Sinofsky declined to comment on the revelations and has never been accused of any wrongdoing.)

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As for LinkedIn co-founder and Microsoft board member Reid Hoffman, Gates said Epstein “may have come up” in conversation, that he’d had some prior awareness of a link through “some MIT connection,” and that both Hoffman and Epstein attended his final meeting with Epstein, a December 2014 breakfast. Hoffman said he deeply regrets working with Epstein after his conviction and has called for the full release of the files.

Rep. Lauren Boebert pressed Gates on Epstein’s interest in eugenics, transhumanism, and genetic engineering, asking whether Epstein ever discussed “genetic ambitions,” “population engineering,” or CRISPR-related DNA research with him, or tried to tie any of it to the Gates Foundation’s work. Gates said nothing ever came to light that Epstein had no influence on those plans.

Defending his foundation’s work, Gates said GAVI’s vaccine purchasing is “the primary reason childhood death has gone from 10 million a year down to below 5 million a year.” Separately, Gates said the foundation’s work “will be something I will focus on for the rest of my life.”