Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was pictured posing with one of Jeffrey Epstein’s a*ccusers — part of the well-connected se*x offe*nder’s use of photos to manipulate the women he ab*used and control the narrative around his nefarious behavior, according to a new report.
The photo — believed to be among the first showing Gates with an alleged Epstein victim — was allegedly taken by the shady financier himself at Gates’ Seattle office in March 2014, years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In the image, published by the Journal Sunday, Gates is seen smiling and fiddling with the zipper of his dark quarter-zip sweater as a woman identified as a Polish model, then in her 20s, stands erect at his side in a grey jacket and blue scarf with her chest nearly pressed up against him.
The woman, whose face was obscured in the published photo, told the Journal she met Epstein, a registered se*x offe*nder, months before the snap was taken and that he then quickly began showering her with promises that he could help her career with his powerful connections.
At least three other photos exist allegedly showing Gates with Epstein ac*cusers, the Journal reported, saying it reviewed images of a Russian model who claims she was a*bused by Epstein posing with the tech titan at locations including the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City and Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse.
Gates, 68, wasn’t the only famous person in new photos with Epstein’s al*leged victims. Epstein hanged himself in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10, 2019, while he was waiting to be tried on federal s*ex trafficking charges.
The Journal says that the Polish model was also seen with director Woody Allen at Epstein’s townhouse, with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud in 2014, and with Charlie Rose.
The model didn’t say that Gates or any of the other men were se*xually inappropriate.
But her lawyers told the Journal that Epstein was using his powerful connections to help his alleged se*x trafficking business, even if she didn’t know it.
“If Jeffrey Epstein didn’t have real ties to so many powerful people, he wouldn’t have been able to traffic most of these women after 2008,” said Brad Edwards, who works with Brittany Henderson to run a law firm and represents the model and more than 150 people who have ac*cused Epstein of s*exual assault.
Henderson also said, “He used the powerful people he was hanging out with to help his s*ex trafficking scheme, whether those people knew it or not.” “He was using everyone around him to make it look like he was legitimate.”
Several people who have acc*used Epstein have been seen in photos with powerful men in the past. One of these is the now-famous picture of Britain’s Prince Andrew putting his arm around Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s bare midriff when she was 17. In the background, smiling, is convicted Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
Another picture shows former President Bill Clinton getting a massage from Chauntae Davies, a former employee of Epstein who is now an acc*user, while they are on Epstein’s private jet, which is called the “Lolita Express.”
Epstein gathered pictures of the Polish and Russian models with business leaders and other famous men and told them that the pictures could help their careers. He then used those pictures to support his story that he was very connected, which he then used to get more victims, according to the Journal.
According to the models, Epstein would use threats of work through social media to get them to post the pictures. He would then keep them going by telling them they would get work through those connections.
But those promises almost always didn’t come true in the end.
Epstein made a lot of promises to the Polish model, and at the end he offered her the chance to be the mistress of one of his friends. He said this could make her millions of dollars, what she told the paper.
She turned down the offer right before she ran away to Poland in 2015, but Epstein used a picture of her with Gates to try to get her to come back.
He sent her the picture in March 2015 and told her, “Now you are back in your room, as you only follow your own advice,” the report said.
A few months later, she wrote to him, “I think that becoming a mistress was the only job offer you were really serious about.” “It was great to meet Gates or Woody. Thank you. I’ll never forget it. But no one hired me just because I have a nice picture with them.”
Gates has said that he feels bad about meeting with Epstein several times in the 2010s, after Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008, to try to raise money for the Gates Foundation.
Gates’s representative said again that the businessman and philanthropist “only ever met with Epstein for philanthropic purposes, which he regrets.”
“Epstein tried to connect himself to Mr. Gates in any way possible, but failed. He even brought in strangers for photos with Bill that he didn’t know or interact with further,” the spokesperson said.
Allen, in a statement to the Journal, said he was never aware that Epstein was using Allen’s name to manipulate vi*ctims.
“At no time did he ever request I cast anyone in a movie — and I never did it,” the director said.
Representatives for Wexner, whose fortune Epstein managed for years before being hit with s*ex crim*es in 2006, said the billionaire “severed all ties with Epstein in 2007 and never spoke with him again.”
Epstein was always meeting new people who he could ab*use and trick. He usually went after young women from Russia and eastern Europe who had been se*xually ab*used before.
The Journal said that Epstein would give many people large amounts of money and promise that he would take care of their visas, pay for their education in the US, or apartment-hunt them near his townhouse.
The report said that soon after, they were taken by private jet to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, where they were forced to spend the days n*aked.
He told some people to give up their modeling dreams and try massage therapy instead, and then he had them practice on him.
According to the people who say Epstein se*xually a*ssaulted them, he often started with massages.
Henderson, the victims’ lawyer, told the Journal, “He knew they weren’t going to report it because they were trained not to report ab*use.” Henderson also said that Epstein used their insecurities and pasts to control them in a “insidious mental manipulation.”
The Russian model told the newspaper that Epstein was always making fun of her weight. She said she was told she needed to lose weight and then told she needed to gain it back, even though she was only about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 130 pounds.
“My body was always off in some way.”
Epstein left a paper trail that seemed meant to support the image he had made of himself as a champion of women looking for their big break, even as he turned his promises of help into abu*se.
He made the women write thank-you notes every time he did something nice for them, the Russian model told the Journal. He also made them smile while he filmed and took naked pictures of them.
The woman said, “It was almost like he was writing down everything so we can’t go against him.”
“If you’re not happy and smiling, he was going to talk to you because you’re not being thankful,” she said. “And those letters of thanks, I’m sure he used them as another promise that we wouldn’t go against him.”
It didn’t matter how much they thanked Epstein or what they did for him; he always kept his word.
“After two years in the JE circle, none of us had anything real to put on our resumes, and none of the jobs he promised ever came through,” the Russian model said.
