Bill Gates testified that Epstein sought to blackmail him

Microsoft founder Bill Gates told US members of Congress that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had sought to "blackmail" him over his extramarital affairs, according to a transcript of the testimony.

The tech pioneer testified behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee on 10 June regarding his friendship with the disgraced American financier, who died in prison in 2019 as he awaited trial for sex crimes.

According to the transcript released by the committee Tuesday, Gates spoke of "veiled" threats and said the sex offender had considered exploiting his own knowledge of Gates's extramarital affairs to force him to remain in Epstein's orbit, even as Gates was distancing himself from Epstein.

"I was not blackmailed, but you know, as you look at these emails, you know, it looks like Mr Epstein's brainstorming was going in that direction," Gates added, referring to documents from the Epstein case released in January by the US Department of Justice.

"He never sent me anything that I would call blackmail," Gates went on, under further questioning. But it appeared to Gates that through draft emails, Epstein "was sort of rehearsing how either he or he, coaching someone else, might choose to blackmail me, but none of those messages were ever sent to me."

Gates, 70, had released his opening remarks on the day of the testimony, in which he stated he had never been aware of Epstein's criminal behaviour and had "never victimized anyone."

In late February Gates told The Wall Street Journal that his ties to Epstein were a major mistake and admitted to having extramarital affairs with two Russian women but denied any involvement with the financier's activities.

Gates claims his relationship with Epstein began in 2011, three years after the latter pleaded guilty to prostitution charges involving minors.

He also acknowledged that he had known of Epstein's legal troubles, but had also been told that Epstein was someone able to raise billions of dollars for global health, an issue Gates was deeply involved in.

"I knew that it (the Epstein conviction) was of a sexual nature, but, no, I don't think I knew -- dug into the specifics, although I probably should have."

The mere mention of a person's name in the Epstein dossier does not in and of itself imply any wrongdoing. But the documents do, at the very least, reveal links between the sex offender or his associates and certain public figures who often downplayed or even denied the existence of such ties.