Gates on Epstein: Looks Like He Was Brainstorming Blackmail

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released a transcript of its closed-door June 10 session with Bill Gates as part of its probe into Jeffrey Epstein. The Times reports Gates detailed three extramarital affairs he had, and said that Epstein learned of two of them after Gates had cut off contact with Epstein and that Epstein appeared to toy with the idea of using them as pressure, reports ABC News. "I was not blackmailed, but, you know, as you look at these emails, you know, it looks like Mr. Epstein's brainstorming was going in that direction," said Gates. More:

• "There was never an explicit, hey, if you don't do something, I will reveal this. There was the veiled type of language, hey, we should all want to be friends. And as I've said, I took that on very explicitly and said, look, if you think you're going to get more money out of this, it's not going to happen, and if that means you go out and talk to people about things, I will just bear the pain of that and deal with it."
• "Now that I see the January release of documents, it appears that in many cases he, at least in emails to himself, was sort of rehearsing how either he or he coaching someone else might choose to blackmail me, but none of those messages were ever sent to me."
• "I was aware that he had a criminal conviction. I knew that it was of a sexual nature, but, no, I don't think I knew, dug into the specifics, although I probably should have."