Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, the group said in a statement.
Gates answered questions at the twice-a-year meeting Feb. 24 on a range of issues, "including the release of the Epstein files," the foundation said. "In the townhall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions," the foundation said.
The statement came in response toa Wall Street Journal reportthat said Gates had apologized to staff at the event over his ties to Epstein.
More:Larry Summers, Bill Gates: Fallout from Epstein files is widening
Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, the group said in a statement. Photos of Bill Gates were part of the Epstein files that have been released.Bill Gates and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, stand in a handout image from the estate of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, on Dec. 12, 2025." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />
Bill Gates appears with a woman, whose identity has been obscured, in this image from the Epstein estate released by House Oversight Committee Democrats in Washington, DC, on Dec. 18, 2025." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Bill Gates appears with a woman, whose identity has been obscured, in this image from the Epstein estate released by House Oversight Committee Democrats in Washington, DC, on Dec. 18, 2025." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Bill Gates, right, appears with Jeffrey Epstein's pilot Lawrence Visoski in this undated photo released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, Dec. 12, 2025." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
See photos of Bill Gates from the Epstein files
Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions"over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, the group said in a statement. Photos of Bill Gates were part of the Epstein files that have been released.Bill Gates and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, stand in a handout image from the estate of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, on Dec. 12, 2025.
Documentsreleasedby the Justice Department have indicated Gates and Epstein met repeatedly to discuss expanding the Microsoft founder's philanthropic efforts. The meetings came after Epstein was imprisoned for 13 months, ending in 2009, for a conviction on state charges in Florida of soliciting the prostitution involving a minor. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while in custody on federal charges that he had sex-trafficked underage girls.
According to the Journal report, Gates told staff it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender. The report cited a recording of Gates' comments in the town hall.
"I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made," he said, according to the newspaper.
More:Epstein pulled strings, paid tuition across world for kids of powerful
The Journal added Gates also acknowledged two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but he said they did not involve Epstein's victims.
"I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," Gates told the staff, according to the report.
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Justice Department documents from the criminal investigation of Epstein that have been released publicly include pictures of the Microsoft founder posing with women whose faces are redacted. Gates had said his relationship with Epstein was limited to philanthropy-related discussions and acknowledged it was a mistake to meet with him.
According to The Journal, Gates told the foundation's staff the images were pictures Epstein asked him to take with Epstein's assistants after their meetings.
"To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him," Gates added, according to the report.
Other documents showed Epstein tried tomediate a falling-out between Gates and an adviser, Boris Nikolic, in 2013. Epstein wrote an email to himself saying Gates and his aides were mistreating him despite a friendship so close that Gates once asked for antibiotics to treat a sexually transmitted infection he had contracted from "Russian girls."
His former wife, Melinda French Gates,announced their divorcein 2021 after 27 years of marriage. She left the Gates Foundation in 2024.
"Whatever questions remain there of what I don't – 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," French Gates said in the Feb. 5 episode ofNPR's "Wild Card" podcast.
The Gates Foundationsaidearlier in February that it did not make any payments to Epstein or employ him at any time.
The billionairecanceled plans to attend India's AI Impact Summithours before his scheduled keynote speech Feb. 19.
The Gates Foundation, chaired by Gates and started by him and his then-wife in 2000, is one of the world's largest funders of global health initiatives.
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Bill Gates admits to affairs, apologizes for Epstein relationship, WSJ reports
