Bill Gates emails not included in review of Epstein ties that cleared Gates Foundation of wrongdoing
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.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 Eps...