Bill Gates hires ex-Epstein probe chief as adviser ahead of congressional testimony

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has hired a former top congressional investigator to advise him ahead of his testimony before the House Oversight Committee on his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, drawing questions about the impartiality of the probe.

The New York Times, citing multiple people familiar with the Gates Foundation, reported Tuesday that Gates had retained Jake Greenberg, the committee's former chief investigative counsel, to help him prepare for a closed-door deposition scheduled for the following day.

According to documents released earlier by the Justice Department, Gates met Epstein on several occasions while Epstein was alive, and people close to Gates were in frequent contact with Epstein until 2019, the year Epstein died in prison.

In response, the House Oversight Committee, which has been investigating Epstein's criminal conduct, formally requested in March that Gates appear before Congress and sit for a recorded interview.

Greenberg, who is now advising Gates, served as the committee's top investigative official until December last year and led its Epstein-related inquiry — a fact that has fueled the impartiality concerns.

Donald Sherman, chief legal counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit watchdog group, said the public and the opposition party could reasonably question whether the investigation was being conducted independently and free from conflicts of interest — separate from whether the arrangement technically complied with the rules.

However, hiring former senior congressional officials to prepare for oversight investigations is not uncommon, and some observers note that Greenberg would not be considered to have violated ethics rules as long as he does not make direct contact with the committee he previously served.

Former lawmakers and senior congressional staff are subject to a one-year "cooling-off" period after leaving office during which they may not directly contact or lobby Congress. Sharing knowledge of how Congress operates or the status of an investigation with a client, however, is not prohibited.

Meanwhile, Gates has agreed to appear as a witness before the House Oversight Committee hearing examining Epstein's criminal conduct.

After his ties to Epstein became public, Gates met with staff at the charitable foundation he founded, answered detailed questions and apologized, the Wall Street Journal reported, according to Yonhap News Agency's report in April.

According to the Journal, Gates told foundation employees that he had two extramarital affairs with Russian women and that Epstein later learned of them. On his association with Epstein, Gates said, "I did not do anything illegal" and "I never saw anything illegal."

Gates also publicly addressed his relationship with Epstein in an interview with Australia's 9News earlier this year, saying his interactions were limited to dinners and that he never visited Epstein's island.

"I regret all the time I spent with him," he said in that interview. "I apologize for having done that."

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