Billionaire Bill Gates is to testify on June 10 before a congressional committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, a source close to the matter told AFP on April 7.
The Microsoft co-founder is among the prominent names appearing in documents released by the U.S. Justice Department that revealed close friendships, illicit financial dealings and private photos with Epstein.
The source said Gates would sit for a "transcribed interview," signaling his testimony would take place in the same closed-door setting used for that of former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
Gates has admitted making a "huge mistake" in associating with Epstein, telling staff at his charity foundation in February that he had affairs with two Russian women but denying any involvement in the disgraced financier's crimes.
In a draft email among the documents released by the Justice Department, Epstein alleged Gates had engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with 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."
Gates, 70, admitted at a town hall to two affairs.
"I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities," he said.
But he denied any involvement with victims of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.
