Transcript: Reps. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10), James Walkinshaw (D-VA11) Question Bill Gates on Jeffrey Epstein Scandal

See here for the full transcript of the June 10 interview with Bill Gates by the House Oversight Committee, during which Gates told committee members that “he suspected Jeffrey Epstein ‘contemplated blackmailing’ him over affairs.”  Also, see below for transcripts of the questions – and some highlights-  by Representatives James Walkinshaw (D-VA110 and Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10).

• Rep. Walkinshaw to Gates: “Did you have any awareness that Epstein and Ms. Walker were 19 introduced to each other by Donald Trump? Had you ever heard that before you saw this article?” (Gates’ response: “I have not.”)
• Rep. Walkinshaw to Gates: “Mr. Gates, do you know what these blue dress emails that Ms. Walker is referring to? Do you have any sense of what that is, what they are?” (Gates’ response: “I think I said earlier the blue dress could be a reference to the Monica Lewinsky affair, but I don’t know what a blue dress email would be.” )
• Rep. Walkinshaw to Gates: “And in your opinion, why do you think Ms. Walker would have shared, potentially, these emails, if they exist, with Mr. Epstein?  (Gates’ response: “You know, I don’t have an explanation for — that she was in touch with him and saying what she said. I, you know, had a cordial, friendly relationship with Dr. Walker both before and after the time of any of these communications. “)
• Rep. Walkinshaw to Gates: “Any sense that it may have been part of this Epstein effort to generate leverage or potentially blackmail you perhaps?” (Gates’ response: “…I was never made aware of these exchanges and I was not in contact with Epstein in any way, and all of my conversations with Dr. Walker were friendly in nature towards each other. You know, she’d left the foundation, but I continued to talk to her through 2020.”)
• Rep. Walkinshaw to Gates: “Based on what you know now, having maybe reviewed what’s in the files — or some of what’s in the files and the reporting around, you know, Epstein’s effort perhaps to use the payments he made to gain some leverage over you to achieve the goal perhaps he wanted to achieve, how would you describe — in your opinion, was he working towards an attempt to blackmail you based on the evidence that we have and what you know and your own knowledge of him and how he operated? Would you use that term?” (Gates’ response: “No, he never sent me anything that I would call blackmail. As I’ve said, he made veiled references to things like we should all want to be friends. 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 m e. You know, I never paid Jeffrey Epstein anything. And so it’s a bit speculation, but the different things are quite consistent that he would encourage others to try and give him leverage over me, but then that never came to pass…He never blackmailed me, but looking at these emails, it raises a serious probability that he contemplated blackmailing me.”)
• Rep. Subramanyam to Gates: “so you’ve been mentioning that the purpose of knowing Mr. Epstein was he would introduce you to folks who could contribute to the Gates Foundation, and I was just wondering if you could kind of rattle off some of the people he introduced you to? I think I heard Leon Black and Josh Harris and Mort Zuckerman, maybe Tom Pritzker. Is there anyone else he introduced you to for the purpose of supporting the Gates Foundation?” (Gates’ response: “Well, two things: First, the contributions to Global Health would not have come to the Gates Foundation. They would have gone to things like the Global Alliance for Vaccines, or the Global Fund, the other endeavors to help Global Health, but not to the Gates Foundation. Secondly, Epstein was pretty vague about specific names for a long time, and that was frustrating to me. And particularly after dinner in fall of 2013 that my ex-wife Melinda came to, she had a very negative reaction to Mr. Epstein and was saying, Look, you know, either get these donations, you know, maybe you should just cut it off now, showing better judgment than I showed, or, you know, make this concrete, and I chose to continue in pursuing it. But then I was very hardcore, Jeffrey, okay, who are these people? Let’s meet with them. And there’s a lot of delay, but eventually that results in the September 2014 meeting — is it September — 2014 meeting where finally for the first time, this is Epstein showing who he thinks might do this, you know, different from his broad illusions to lots of Wall Street billionaires, lots of Middle East billionaires, you know, he had me meet with people who, as I said, were friendly, but didn’t fit, that as they were not, in any near term, going to give substantial resources to Global Health activities.”)
• Rep. Subramanyam to Gates: “Who are those people again?” (Gates’ response: “The people I met that day were Leon Black. I don’t know if we were scheduled to see Josh Harris, or if he was just in the office there and that was impromptu, but we saw him, Mark Zuckerberg, Tom Pritzker, and that’s all.”
• Rep. Subramanyam to Gates: “Did he ever bring up Les Wexner?” (Gates’ response: “No, that name never came up.”)
• Rep. Subramanyam to Gates: “I guess I want to know who Barak is because Barak seems to — there are a lot of Baraks. It could be Ehud Barak. It could be Barack Obama.” (Gates’ response: “Yeah, I never met any Baraks in connection with Epstein. There were no Baraks whose names were mentioned, or that I met with.”)
• Rep. Subramanyam to Gates: “…did he, Epstein, ever have you sign an NDA at any point, or have anyone sign an NDA?” (Gates’ response: “No, I never signed anything in connection with Epstein.”)
• Rep. Subramanyam to Gates: “…did you do any sort of background check on [Jeffrey Epstein]? ” (Gates’ response: “I wish I had done more, but I did enough to know — did do enough to know that he had been criminally convicted in 2008, or 2009, of a sexually related offense.”)