Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal had a remarkably dishy piece about Bill Gates, “Bill Gates Spent Years Crafting His Image. Now It’s Cracking.” A good chunk of it is about how the “Bill Gates” we’ve seen for the past two decades is nothing but a mirage, someone who has a team of people constantly adjusting everything from his wardrobe to his public statements to his media coverage. These efforts have fallen flat repeatedly since Melinda French divorced him and spoke publicly about Bill’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Epstein relationship will also be the focus of an upcoming congressional hearing, and the Gates Foundation continues to investigate whether Bill should be forced out of his own foundation. Well, this WSJ piece reveals even more gross stuff in Bill’s history, all related to Jeffrey Epstein:

His carefully crafted image has been shattered as more details of Gates’s association with the late Jeffrey Epstein have spilled into public view, challenging prior efforts by the 70-year-old to downplay his relationship with the sex offender. In a February town hall with foundation employees, Gates owned up to two affairs with Russian women referenced in Epstein’s emails. Some people familiar with the matter said they heard about his admission to staff with disbelief: In his divorce proceedings, allegations related to more than 20 affairs had come up.

Justice Department files show that Gates met with Epstein multiple times despite concerns from his then-wife, that Epstein knew about some of Gates’s extramarital relationships and that two of Gates’s close advisers had exchanged hundreds of messages with Epstein for years up until 2019, the year he died.

Fallout from the revelations about Gates’s behavior is now eroding efforts to protect his reputation. Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, was recently snubbed from the company’s annual CEO summit and from the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, which he has attended for years.

Gates and his lieutenants had claimed for years that his relationship with Epstein was strictly about philanthropy and that women weren’t present during his meetings with Epstein. The Justice Department files revealed a more complex picture: Epstein traveled with and introduced Gates to the head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee; Epstein was involved in negotiations between Gates’s employees and Gates himself; and Gates posed for photos with Epstein and the women around him before or after some of their meetings.

A Gates spokesperson said he wasn’t involved in any illegal activities with Epstein and acknowledged it was a mistake to have met with him. “Gates has apologized for that mistake and is voluntarily speaking with the House Oversight Committee early next month to answer questions about his interactions with Epstein. Gates supports the release of all the Epstein files in hopes the victims can get the justice that they deserve,” the spokesperson said.

Amid internal unrest about the new revelations, the foundation told employees it had opened an external review into its ties with Epstein. Next month, Gates will face questioning before a congressional committee over his dealings with the sex offender. His team tapped lawyer John Moran, a Republican former Justice Department official, to represent Gates. The team successfully pushed the voluntary questioning back a few weeks and secured an agreement to keep his appearance off video.

[From The Wall Street Journal]

I’m sorry, 20 AFFAIRS? And we heard about the affairs with two Russian women, and that confession absolutely seems connected to the Epstein Files and certain kompromat held by Epstein. I appreciate that WSJ is trying to connect the dots too – that Epstein had knowledge of Bill’s affairs and was possibly acting as blackmailer or facilitator or all of the above. One of the big “tells” that Bill Gates’ image will never recover is that Warren Buffett truly wants nothing to do with him. Buffett cut off donations to the Gates Foundation, Buffett refuses to speak to Gates, and now Gates isn’t allowed at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting? Buffet was once like a second father to Gates, and it sounds like Buffett has completely cut ties.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.