Microsoft magnate Bill Gates has told Congress he never discussed Jeffrey Epstein with the disgraced former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, but said the paedophile financier “weirdly” kept a picture of the pair together at an official function.
The tech billionaire appeared before the influential House Oversight Committee earlier this month as part of its investigation into the late child sex offender and the US government’s handling of the scandal.
The transcript has just been released of the behind-closed-doors session at which Gates accused Epstein of trying to blackmail him over his extramarital affairs.
Mr Gates acknowledged that meeting Epstein, who was sentenced to prison in 2008 for soliciting a child for prostitution, “was a grave error in judgment” but said the relationship was limited to philanthropy and denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of the sex predator’s abuse of girls.
Asked at the committee hearing whether he had ever discussed the financier with the former prince, Mr Gates said “nothing connected to Epstein”.
According to the transcript, he said of Andrew: “I encountered him two times in official visits in the UK where he was serving as something like the trade representative.”
Pressed on this, he said the interaction was “never about Jeffrey Epstein”.
He added: “Weirdly in the set of photos that I guess Epstein kept, there is a photo of me and prince Andrew at one of those official state meetings.
“But nothing in connection with Epstein, even though Epstein seemed to have that picture and it shows up in the Epstein files.”
Asked whether Epstein had been at the function, Mr Gates said: “No, no, I never saw him in the UK, and those were both meetings in the UK.”
The undated image of Mr Gates with the former royal, both wearing suits and ties in an apparently formal setting, was among those from Epstein’s personal collection shared by Democrats on the oversight committee at the end of last year.
Andrew stepped down as trade envoy in 2011, where he earned the nickname “Air Miles Andy” for his lavish globetrotting, amid controversy over his continued friendship with Epstein, who cultivated ties to wealthy and powerful figures.
Other photos released at the time included pictures of Epstein with Donald Trump before he entered the White House, former president Bill Clinton, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and movie director Woody Allen.
No captions or context were provided with the images.
Other pictures kept by Epstein and subsequently shared were of sex toys, including safety instructions for “The Jawbreaker Gag”.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled as a suicide.
His accomplice, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the US for luring young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, had accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager after being trafficked by Epstein.
He has strongly denied this, but in 2022 reached an out-of-court settlement with her, despite claiming never to have met her.
The King last year stripped his brother of his royal titles after fresh revelations about his Epstein ties, and Andrew was forced to leave his Windsor mansion and move to the monarch’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
The scandal also saw Lord Peter Mandelson fired as UK ambassador to the US.
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Both were arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office over their connections with Epstein.
They were subsequently released under investigation and deny any wrongdoing.
Andrew was embroiled in further controversy more recently after it was revealed he received an undisclosed private income from subletting three cottages on his Royal Lodge estate while paying a peppercorn rent for more than two decades.
