Bill Gates admits to affairs, apologizes for Epstein relationship, WSJ reports

Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, the group said in a statement.

Gates answered questions at the twice-a-year meeting Feb. 24 on a range of issues, "including the release of the Epstein files," the foundation said. "In the townhall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions," the foundation said.

The statement came in response toa Wall Street Journal reportthat said Gates had apologized to staff at the event over his ties to Epstein.

More:Larry Summers, Bill Gates: Fallout from Epstein files is widening

Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, the group said in a statement. Photos of Bill Gates were part of the Epstein files that have been released.
Bill Gates and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, stand in a handout image from the estate of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, on Dec. 12, 2025.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Bill Gates appears with a woman, whose identity has been obscured, in this image from the Epstein estate released by House Oversight Committee Democrats in Washington, DC, on Dec. 18, 2025.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Bill Gates appears with a woman, whose identity has been obscured, in this image from the Epstein estate released by House Oversight Committee Democrats in Washington, DC, on Dec. 18, 2025.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Bill Gates, right, appears with Jeffrey Epstein's pilot Lawrence Visoski in this undated photo released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, Dec. 12, 2025.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

See photos of Bill Gates from the Epstein files

Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions"over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, the group said in a statement. Photos of Bill Gates were part of the Epstein files that have been released.Bill Gates and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, stand in a handout image from the estate of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, on Dec. 12, 2025.

Documentsreleasedby the Justice Department have indicated Gates and Epstein met repeatedly to discuss expanding the Microsoft founder's philanthropic efforts. The meetings came after Epstein was imprisoned for 13 months, ending in 2009, for a conviction on state charges in Florida of soliciting the prostitution involving a minor. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while in custody on federal charges that he had sex-trafficked underage girls.

According to the Journal report, Gates told staff it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender. The report cited a recording of Gates' comments in the town hall.

"I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made," he said, according to the newspaper.

More:Epstein pulled strings, paid tuition across world for kids of powerful

The Journal added Gates also acknowledged two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but he said they did not involve Epstein's victims.

"I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," Gates told the staff, according to the report.

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Justice Department documents from the criminal investigation of Epstein that have been released publicly include pictures of the Microsoft founder posing with women whose faces are redacted. Gates had said his relationship with Epstein was limited to philanthropy-related discussions and acknowledged it was a mistake to meet with him.

According to The Journal, Gates told the foundation's staff the images were pictures Epstein asked him to take with Epstein's assistants after their meetings.

"To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him," Gates added, according to the report.

Other documents showed Epstein tried tomediate a falling-out between Gates and an adviser, Boris Nikolic, in 2013. Epstein wrote an email to himself saying Gates and his aides were mistreating him despite a friendship so close that Gates once asked for antibiotics to treat a sexually transmitted infection he had contracted from "Russian girls."

His former wife, Melinda French Gates,announced their divorcein 2021 after 27 years of marriage. She left the Gates Foundation in 2024.

"Whatever questions remain there of what I don't – can't even begin to know all of it – those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me," French Gates said in the Feb. 5 episode ofNPR's "Wild Card" podcast.

The Gates Foundationsaidearlier in February that it did not make any payments to Epstein or employ him at any time.

The billionairecanceled plans to attend India's AI Impact Summithours before his scheduled keynote speech Feb. 19.

The Gates Foundation, chaired by Gates and started by him and his then-wife in 2000, is one of the world's largest funders of global health initiatives.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Bill Gates admits to affairs, apologizes for Epstein relationship, WSJ reports

byNeo

in Celebrity, Lifestyle, Politics, ShowBiz, Sport

February 25, 2026

Bill Gates admits to affairs, apologizes for Epstein relationship, WSJ reports

Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town ...

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Trump policy allowing swift deportations to alternate countries rejected by US judge

By Nate Raymond

U.S. District Judge Murphy Investiture Ceremony in Boston

BOSTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration had adopted an unlawful policy that allows for the rapid deportation of migrants to countries other than their own without providing them a ‌chance to object and raise concerns for their safety.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued a final ruling declaring the ‌U.S. Department of Homeland Security's policy invalid in a case that the administration expects will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The policy, which was adopted in ​March 2025 as part of Republican President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, failed to protect the due process rights of migrants who without notice could be swiftly deported to "an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous country," Murphy said.

Murphy said the administration had argued it would be "fine" for immigration officers under that policy to quickly deport people to so-called third countries they did not come from as long as DHS does not know someone is waiting to kill them upon ‌their arrival.

"It is not fine, nor is it ⁠legal," wrote Murphy, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.

DECISION ON HOLD PENDING LIKELY APPEAL

The judge set aside the policy and declared that migrants who had been subject to it had a right to meaningful ⁠notice and a chance to raise objections to being deported to third countries. But he paused his ruling from taking effect for 15 days to allow the administration time to pursue an appeal, citing the case's "importance and its unusual history."

He noted the Supreme Court's earlier interventions in the case. The court previously ​lifted ​a preliminary injunction Murphy issued in April protecting the due process rights of ​migrants facing deportation to third countries and later cleared ‌the way for eight men to be sent to South Sudan.

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While it was in effect, that earlier injunction hindered the administration's efforts to send migrants to countries other than their places of origin, including South Sudan, Libya and El Salvador.

A spokesperson for DHS, in a statement, pointed to the Supreme Court's earlier rulings in its favor in the case and said the department was "confident we will be vindicated again."

"DHS must be allowed to execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them," the DHS spokesperson said.

Wednesday's ruling came ‌in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of migrants facing deportation to countries not ​previously named in their removal orders or identified in their immigration court proceedings.

The policy allows ​migrants to be deported to such countries if immigration authorities ​either have credible diplomatic assurances they will not be persecuted or tortured if sent there, or have given ‌the migrants as little as six hours of notice that ​they are being sent to such ​a place.

Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, called Murphy's ruling "a forceful statement from the court that the administration's third-country removal policy is unconstitutional."

"Under the government's policy, people have been forcibly returned to countries where U.S. immigration ​judges have found they will be persecuted or ‌tortured," Realmuto said in a statement.

Department of Justice lawyers had argued the policy satisfied immigration law requirements and due process ​standards and was essential for deporting migrants whose home countries refused them due to crimes they committed.

(Reporting by Nate ​Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Nia Williams and Bill Berkrot)

byNeo

in Celebrity, Lifestyle, Politics, ShowBiz, Sport

February 25, 2026

Trump policy allowing swift deportations to alternate countries rejected by US judge

By Nate Raymond U.S. District Judge Murphy Investiture Ceremony in Boston BOSTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A feder...

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Crews in Florida battle a 25,000-acre wildfire near 'Alligator Alcatraz'

Crews in South Florida were trying to contain a wildfire in Big Cypress National Preserve that had burned more than 25,000 acres (100 square kilometers) near the immigration detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" as of Wednesday.

The fire caused periodic lane closures due to smoke and poor visibility on the stretch of Interstate 75 known as Alligator Alley, which connects Florida's east and west coasts and runs through the vast Everglades wetlands. Wildfires are common the dry winter season.

However, the wildfire posed no threat Wednesday to the state-run "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration jail, said Stephanie Hartman, director of communications for the Florida Department of Emergency Management.

"The fire is situated 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the west of the facility and is burning in the opposite direction. Thanks to the increased humidity levels, we are seeing faster fire recovery and containment," she said.

"Alligator Alcatraz," which opened last July on a little-used airfield deep in the Everglades, has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's sweepingimmigration crackdownand holds detainees who the federal government isseeking to deport.

Hartman said the department is in touch with local and state crews regarding the wildfires, who will give them a 24-hour notice if an evacuation at Alligator Alcatraz becomes necessary. She said evacuation procedures are well rehearsed, allowing a quick and efficient response.

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She did not immediately respond to a question about the number of detainees at the facility.

When it opened in July 2025, state officials said "Alligator Alcatraz" would have a capacity for 3,000 detainees that could be expanded to 5,000. According to recent reports revealed during a series of court hearings in Fort Myers in late January, there were about 1,500 detainees.

A strong cold front Sunday also brought dry air, which resulted in red flag warning for fire conditions across much of the state, said Anthony Reynes, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.

The relative humidity was increasing on Wednesday, helping ease the conditions that fueled the fire, Reynes said. Still, conditions remain ripe for wildfires due to winds from the south and dry soil and grass, he said.

He said very little rain is in the forecast for the rest of the week, meaning severe drought conditions are continuing across the state.

Associated Press writer Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed.

byNeo

in Celebrity, Lifestyle, Politics, ShowBiz, Sport

February 25, 2026

Crews in Florida battle a 25,000-acre wildfire near 'Alligator Alcatraz'

Crews in South Florida were trying to contain a wildfire in Big Cypress National Preserve that had burned more than 25,00...

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