WASHINGTON — Microsoft founder Bill Gates revealed in a congressional interview the identities of the two Russian women with whom he had affairs — and the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein later tried to “blackmail” him over, according to a transcript released Tuesday.
Gates was grilled before the House Oversight Committee on June 10 about Epstein’s “attempt to blackmail” him over the infidelities — which the billionaire’s wife, Melinda French Gates, also learned about at the time — and which he confessed to employees at his philanthropic foundation earlier this year.
Gates testified that Epstein had accurately discovered he had been involved in two affairs with Russian women at the time: the bridge player Mila Antonova and the nuclear scientist Karima Nigmatulina.
The attempt to gain “leverage” over one of the world’s richest men was first revealed in a July 18, 2013, email published in January by the Department of Justice that Epstein had drafted, apparently on behalf of one of Gates’ own employees, Boris Nikolic, who was preparing to depart as a science adviser.
“Though it was kindly suggested that I make a transition to a new position after my 6 years of service and that Bill would, in his words, give me a generous package, I feel it would be dishonest to myself and my future from helping Bill to get drugs in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women, to being asked to provide Adderall for bridge tournaments,” the draft email stated.
“I feel I owe it to my friends and future colleagues to admit a moral failure, to ask forgiveness, and to move on with my life.”
The philanthropist described the draft email as an “attempt at blackmail,” while at other points in his interview he downplayed the extent to which he had been almost blackmailed.
“[W]ho knows if he ever sent it to Dr. Nikolic, but it looks like he’s musing on using a mixture of facts and falsities as an effort, almost like a blackmail, to advance some goal in improving Dr. Nikolic’s negotiating position as part of his exit from my employ,” Gates told Oversight lawmakers and staff.
Gates also described subsequent efforts by Epstein to get him to pay for expenses the financier incurred on behalf of Antonova as “either blackmail or attempt to reestablish a relationship with me.”
“He never blackmailed me, but looking at these emails, it raises a serious probability that he contemplated blackmailing me,” he added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
