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Emails from an account that appeared to belong to Jeffrey Epstein claimed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates tried to hide a sexually transmitted disease from his wife Melinda after having sex with “Russian girls”.
In an email, one of 3mn pages of files released by the Department of Justice on Friday, the late sex offender also appears to take issue with Gates for ending their relationship.
“TO add insult to injury you then subsequently with tears in your eyes, implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you with antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda, and the description of your penis,” the message says.
The release of the documents was announced by Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney-general, and comes more than a month after the December 19 deadline that was set in legislation mandating that the entire trove of documents related to Epstein be released.
So far, the files have offered few new revelations of the links between Epstein and President Donald Trump.
But they have exposed Epstein’s connections with powerful figures on the centre-left, including former president Bill Clinton, Lord Peter Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the US, and Gates.
Another email reads: “I have been asked and wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate, to the ethically unsound . . . From helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women, to being asked to provide adderall fro [sic] bridge tournaments.
A spokesperson for Gates said the claims were “absolutely absurd and completely false”.
“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the person added.
The Trump administration had initially resisted the publication of all the Epstein files but backed down after bipartisan pressure, including from the president’s allies on the right flank of the Republican Party.
The justice department has insisted it could not release all the files before December 19 because it needed to comb through the documents to protect victims with redactions.
“We redacted every woman depicted in any image or video, with the exception of Ms Maxwell,” Blanche said, referring to Ghislaine Maxwell, a close associate of Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in his criminal activities. “We did not redact images of any men, unless it was impossible to redact the woman without also redacting the man.”
The deputy attorney-general also sought to defend the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files from critics, including victims of the late sex offender, who have attacked the government for withholding the publication of all the documents for months.
“To the extent that there’s frustration, I understand where that comes from just from what we know about Mr Epstein,” Blanche said. “I hope that the work that the men and women within this department have done over the past two months, hopefully, is able to bring closure.”
But Democrats accused the DoJ of continuing to conceal some of the material, saying the full trove of documents amounted to 6mn pages.
Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, said: “Donald Trump and his Department of Justice have now made it clear that they intend to withhold roughly 50 per cent of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law. This is outrageous and incredibly concerning.”
The DoJ’s release also shows that Epstein arranged for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, to have dinner with a 26-year-old Russian woman, during an email exchange in which the two discussed the American’s recent release from house arrest on under-age sex charges.
Epstein wrote in August 2010 to someone appearing to be Mountbatten-Windsor saying he had “a friend”, identified only as “Irina”, with whom he thought the former prince would enjoy “having dinner”. The exchange came shortly after Epstein’s release from house arrest following his imprisonment for charges of procuring an underage girl for prostitution. The person signing himself as the Duke of York — Mountbatten-Windsor’s then title — wrote to him: “How are you? Good to be free?”
The following month, Epstein wrote to Mountbatten-Windsor during a visit to London, suggesting he come over with some women. Mountbatten-Windsor replied: “What time and how many?” Epstein asked if he should bring them all to Buckingham Palace “to add some life”.
Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein.
Additional reporting by Lauren Fedor
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