Bill Gates gives an interview to Reuters in New York City, USA, on May 8, 2025.
Mike Seeger | Reuters
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will be questioned by a House committee on Wednesday about his controversial friendship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Billionaire Gates is one of the biggest names to face an investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating Epstein’s network of prominent friends for months.
Gates’ testimony came a day after the committee questioned Leslie Groff, Epstein’s longtime former executive assistant.
The committee’s chairman, Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, told reporters Tuesday that “anything is on the table” when it comes to questioning Gates. “According to his lawyer, he’s not exactly keen on testifying, but he’s willing to testify and he’s not resisting, and I appreciate that.”
Gates became friends with Epstein in 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It was three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting an underage girl into prostitution. Epstein served a 13-month prison sentence in this case.
He died by suicide in prison in August 2019, weeks after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
The friendship between Mr. Gates and Mr. Epstein received new attention in late 2025 with the release of documents about Mr. Epstein and his associates by the Justice Department and Congress.
Gates has not been charged with any wrongdoing related to Epstein.
CNBC asked the Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organization founded by Gates and his ex-wife Melinda Gates, for comment on his testimony.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Gates had been preparing his testimony with the help of Jake Greenberg, who served as the Oversight Committee’s chief investigative adviser until December.
CNBC has reached out to Greenberg for comment.
“Mr. Gates welcomes the opportunity to appear before the committee,” a spokesperson for Mr. Gates said in a statement in March.
“Although he did not witness or participate in Mr. Epstein’s illegal activities, he looks forward to answering all of the committee’s questions in support of its important work,” the spokesperson said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Epstein was aware of the extramarital affair, and in February Gates apologized to staff at Gates Foundation City Hall for his relationship with Epstein and admitted to having had affairs with two Russian women.
“I didn’t do anything illegal. I didn’t see anything illegal,” Gates said during questioning, according to the newspaper.
But Gates also reportedly said that “spending time with Mr. Epstein was a big mistake” at the event, and that he took foundation executives to meet with Mr. Epstein.
Gates reportedly said, “I apologize to everyone else who was caught up in this because of the mistakes I made.”
The Gates Foundation previously announced it had commissioned an outside investigation into the charity’s past ties to Epstein. The foundation said it expects its board and management to receive an update on the review this summer.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett, a longtime friend of Gates, told CNBC’s Becky Quick in late March that he had not spoken to the Microsoft co-founder “since the full disclosure” of the Epstein file.
“I don’t want to be in a position where I’m called as a witness and know things,” Buffett said. “I don’t think there’s much point in talking about it until the issue is resolved.”
Mr. Buffett called Mr. Epstein a con artist who took advantage of other people’s weaknesses.
“Men would prefer sex…and some of them would prefer not to pay taxes. And he understood their weakness,” Buffett said.
Buffett has donated more than $43 billion to the Gates Foundation since 2006.
—Karen James Sloan contributed to this report.
