An external review that cleared the Gates Foundation of any wrongdoing in its ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein this week notably did not include any of Bill Gates’ personal emails, according to a footnote in the report’s summary.
Lawyers at WilmerHale, commissioned by the Gates Foundation, did not have access to the billionaire Microsoft founder’s personal communications or the activities of his private office, Gates Venture, where two employees with alleged deep ties to Epstein worked, as the Wall Street Journal first reported.
On Tuesday, a three-page summary of WilmerHale’s report was released that found Gates and foundation employees met with Epstein about 30 times from 2011 to 2014 – despite warnings from other employees that they risked reputational harm.
The meetings – including several visits to Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and one gathering on the Gates Foundation campus – seemingly focused on a possible public health fund, which was never created, and a grant to the International Peace Institute, then-run by an Epstein associate, according to the review.
WilmerHale said it found “no evidence” that the Gates Foundation paid Epstein, did anything illegal or was aware of Epstein’s sex-trafficking crimes in its 50-plus interviews with current and former foundation employees, including Gates himself.
The Gates Foundation commissioned the review after Gates and some staffers at the foundation were named in the Department of Justice’s Epstein files – a trove of hundreds of thousands of files showing the sex criminal’s communications with powerful pols, celebs and financiers.
In sworn testimony to Congress last month, Gates admitted to having affairs with two Russian women, saying Epstein had learned of the infidelity and tried to use the information to blackmail him into reconnecting after they cut ties.
He said he was introduced to Epstein in 2011 – three years after the disgraced financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and four years after Epstein reached a controversial non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
He said the relationship ended by December 2014.
Gates has not been accused of any crimes and has expressed regret for his ties to the notorious sex trafficker, saying he made a “grave error in judgment” by meeting with Epstein.
In a statement Tuesday, Gates said: “Completing this review is an important step in providing the clarity that partners, employees and grantees deserve.”
The Gates Foundation released the summary this week after a five-month review and did not say whether the full report would be published.
Its board has vowed to strengthen its governance and internal processes following the review.
In the meantime, the Gates Foundation, among the largest philanthropic organizations in the world, has already suffered a hit as longtime donor Warren Buffett last week ended his gifts to the foundation.
The 95-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway notably excluded the Gates Foundation as he announced donations of $6 billion this year, ending a two-decade philanthropic partnership with the tech billionaire.
Buffett, who has been friends with Gates for around 35 years, told CNBC that he found Gates’ ties to Epstein “distasteful” – but added that everybody makes mistakes and he recently met with the Microsoft founder.
The Gates Foundation – founded by Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates – was the largest recipient of Buffett’s annual donations for years, receiving more than $47 billion worth of Berkshire stock since 2006.
