I’m a big “mental gymnastics” person. I can easily twist myself in knots (in my own head) to justify why I should do something bad, wrong, lazy or dumb if it’s something I really want to do. “Yes, I probably shouldn’t eat this candy but I deserve it because of the day I’ve had.” Or: “I’m going to take this probably illegal shortcut because it’s easy and no one’s coming.” One of the most astounding things about the Epstein Files is that… other people don’t even go through the “mental gymnastics” part of life. There are no mental gymnastics on display in any of these communications with a convicted child-predator. These are some of the most elite, powerful, wealthy and well-connected people in the world and they’re randomly gossiping with Jeffrey Epstein and begging for invites to his island and asking to hang out when they’re in New York. There are no emails which start with “please don’t contact me again” or “no, I really can’t do this, I could never live with myself if I continued communicating with you.” Epstein’s whole existence was never a dealbreaker for any of these people. Speaking of, Bill Gates is still trying to explain why he regrets going to multiple parties at Jeffrey Epstein’s home. He’s also trying to explain why Epstein possibly faked (??) kompromat about Gates.

Bill Gates is again addressing his ties with Jeffrey Epstein in the wake of recently released documents that put a spotlight on their past relationship. In an interview with 9 News in Australia on Wednesday, Feb. 4, Gates, 70, said he “regrets” spending time with the disgraced financier as he discussed the contents of documents shared publicly by the U.S. Department of Justice last week.

Speaking to political editor Charles Croucher, Gates denied allegations mentioned in draft emails from Epstein that he had transgressions with women. He also denied that he once contracted a sexually transmitted disease that he hid from his then-wife, Melinda French Gates.

“Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent,” Gates told 9 News. “The email is false. I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way? Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize that I did that.”

Gates told 9 News that he first met Epstein in 2011 and that he “only went to dinners” with the convicted sex offender until 2014. He claimed that their relationship mainly involved them discussing business opportunities together.

“The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end,” he told 9 News. “I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.”

Gates also denied ever visiting Epstein’s notorious island property or having relations with other women. “And so, the more that comes out, the more clear it’ll be that, although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior,” he told 9 News.

[From People]

“Until 2014” – While Melinda French Gates was squishy on the timeline, I’m pretty sure she indicated that Bill kept in contact with Epstein for a lot longer than that. Melinda also said that Epstein made her skin crawl and she didn’t want anything to do with his parties or anything else. As in, Bill was going solo for much of the time he hung out with Epstein. But again, even if you’re going with Bill’s narrative, he attended Epstein’s parties for years, and those were the years after which Epstein had gotten a sweetheart deal from federal prosecutors on trafficking and child-predation. As for Bill’s story on Epstein’s email about “Russian girls” and STDs… I don’t even know at this point. Was Epstein testing out some new blackmail scheme? Was any of it true? Yikes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.