Bill Gates with an unknown person whose face is redacted, in a photo that the Jeffrey Epstein estate provided to Congress. U.S. House Oversight Committee Democrats

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has apologized to staff at his philanthropic foundation over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, telling attendees at a Gates Foundation town hall on Tuesday that mistakes he made had overshadowed the work of the group, but denying that he was complicit in or had knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

While not directly confirming the apology, a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation told CBS News that Gates "answered questions submitted by foundation staff on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files, the foundation's work in AI, and the future of global health. In the townhall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions."

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the billionaire's apology on Tuesday, saying it had reviewed a recording of his remarks.

"It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein," Gates said, according to the Journal. "I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made."

"I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," Gates said, according to the newspaper.

Gates said he first met Epstein in 2011, three years after the late financier's conviction on state charges including soliciting a minor for prostitution, which saw him sentenced to 18 months detention in a minimum-security facility. Gates told staff he was aware of some "18-month thing" that had limited Epstein's travel, but said he didn't thoroughly vet his background, according to the Journal.

"Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it's clear there was ongoing bad behavior," the newspaper quoted him as saying. Gates also praised his former wife and foundation co-founder Melinda French Gates, whom he said had always been "skeptical" of Epstein.

The Journal said Gates told staff he continued meeting Epstein up until 2014, including taking a flight on a private jet and spending time with him in Germany, France, New York and Washington, but that he strenuously denied ever staying overnight at a venue with Epstein or visiting the convicted sex offender's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Among the many documents related to Epstein released by the U.S Department of Justice, two emails Epstein sent to himself on July 18, 2013, contain unverified allegations that Gates had extramarital "sex with Russian girls" that resulted in a sexually transmitted infection requiring antibiotic treatment. In one email, Epstein claimed Gates also sought to "surreptitiously give" antibiotics to his then-wife Melinda Gates.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gates admitted to staff at the town hall on Tuesday that he "did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities."

Bill and Melinda Gates were divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage. Earlier this month, French Gates said on an NPR podcast that she felt "an unbelievable sadness" about her former husband's name appearing in the Epstein files.

"For me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage," she said.

Gates also said Tuesday that his relationship with Epstein had distracted from his foundation's philanthropic work, and that he had maintained the relationship with the disgraced financier in the hope of raising money for global health, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Epstein "talked about the kind of intimate relationship he had with a lot of billionaires, particularly Wall Street billionaires," Gates said, adding that Epstein had other prestigious people at these meetings that "made it easier for me to feel like this was a normalized situation."

The Gates Foundation released a statement earlier this month acknowledging exchanges between foundation staff and Epstein that were released publicly by the Department of Justice.

"On the basis of Epstein's claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health and development, a small number of foundation employees interacted with Epstein to try to secure this potential funding. Ultimately, the foundation did not pursue any collaboration with Epstein and no fund was ever created. At no time were financial payments made by the foundation to Epstein, nor was he employed by the foundation at any time," the foundation said in the statement, adding that it "regrets having any employees interact with Epstein in any way."

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