He argued before a US congressional committee that the convicted sex offender intended to blackmail him by taking advantage of his extramarital affairs, according to the text of his testimony.
Its co-founder testified on June 10, behind closed doors, in , about his friendly relations with the American stockbroker, who died in prison in 2019, while awaiting her trial.
That same day, Gates released his opening statement, in which he maintained that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity and that he had “never done anyone any harm.”
Gates had received veiled threats from Epstein
When questioned by the committee, Gates said that his friend planned to use the fact that he knew about his extramarital affairs to force him to stay in his environment, as he saw that he was withdrawing. In excerpts of the testimony broadcast by ABC News, Gates speaks of “veiled” threats. “It wasn’t blackmail, but if you look at these emails, it looks like Mr. Epstein intended to be led in that direction,” he told Congress, referring to documents from the Epstein files released in January by the Justice Department.
“He never sent anything that could constitute blackmail,” he added, however, in the drafts of the messages he repeated that he or someone else “could have blackmailed me, but none of these messages were sent.”
The huge mistake and extramarital affairs
In late February, Gates called his friendship with Epstein a “huge mistake” and admitted to having an extramarital affair with two Russian women. But he denied that he had any involvement in the criminal acts of the former stockbroker.
According to Gates, his relationship with Epstein began in 2011, three years after the latter pleaded guilty to forcing minors into prostitution. When they met “I knew he had been convicted” of a sex offense “but I didn’t seek to find out more, although I probably should have,” he told Congress.
The mere mention of a name in the Epstein files is not an indication of any wrongdoing on the part of that person.
