Bill Gates does damage control at his foundation, apologizing to staff for Epstein ties

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been public knowledge for several years. But this week, Gates took the additional step of apologizing for those ties to the staff of the Gates Foundation here in Seattle. The foundation is one of the wealthiest in the world with an estimated annual budget of $9 billion. Wall Street Journal reporter Emily Glazer told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about the meeting.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: Tell us what Gates said at that meeting. What did he admit to and apologize for?

Emily Glazer: The meeting was open to all Gates foundation staff. It was one of two pre-scheduled town hall events that Gates does each year. According to the recording I reviewed, it was more than an hour long, and it was largely focused on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, though they did talk about other matters, like AI, toward the end.

But Gates apologized to Gates Foundation staff for his ties to Epstein, for not doing enough due diligence. He admitted his mistakes, and he also talked about two affairs that Epstein later discovered. He said that his mistakes had cast a cloud over the Gates Foundation, but he also really insisted he didn't participate in Epstein's crimes. He said he didn't do anything illicit, that his affairs were not with any victims.

He apologized to foundation staff, but also was very clear about what he did not do. He said he didn't sleep over at the island. He did go on a plane, but he didn't go to the Florida home, so there was like a little bit of back and forth there.

Is Bill Gates bound to any code of conduct at the Gates Foundation that might have some impact now?

Gates is a board member. They sometimes call it a trustee at the Gates Foundation. There are board governing principles that are publicly available. It includes language that says each board member has to comply with various policies, including the foundation's code of conduct and conflict of interest policy. Those two stood out to me.

We haven't reported that Bill Gates had relationships with Gates Foundation staffers, but I will note that one of the two women Gates admits to having an affair with is a Russian physicist. There is an email in the Epstein files that we reported on. That woman was an employee of a different Gates company. It's unclear if she was an employee when they had the affair, but it's interesting that he is admitting to so many people, and quite candidly, that he had these affairs. I think he has to, because they're in the public realm now.

We had reported on another one three years ago with the Russian bridge player, but he was never out there saying, ‘Yes, I did have this affair with this woman.’ Now he's saying that to his employees, and I think it's because he has to.

It's hard to overstate how important the Gates Foundation is in global philanthropy. Do you have a sense of what kind of impact, if any, what Gates is admitting to this week might have on the foundation that bears his name, whether it's in the short term or the long term?

Some people have told me before that the Gates Foundation has the power equivalent of a large country. That is how powerful it is, because Bill Gates is meeting with heads of state regularly. He has impact on policies across the world. He's not only one of the wealthiest people in the world, but he’s also one of the biggest philanthropists, and he's really out there.

What I found so telling during this town hall is that he says, this is a quote: “Reputation is 100% of our work.” And he admits that his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is opposite of the values and the goals of the foundation.

He says: “Our work is very reputational-sensitive. People can choose to work with us or not work with us.”

He's really kind of putting it out there. A lot of nonprofits are really stretched for funds. Federal funding has dried up. There have been a lot of studies around this in philanthropic space. So, it's not a time when a lot of nonprofits are saying no to money, but I do think even Bill Gates is admitting the reputational impact this has had for the foundation. So, I would see this as major damage control.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.