Yesterday's News Is One Thing, History Is Another

THE BILL GATES FILES.

Over the past day, I have read some of the most insane things I have read in my life.

I cannot believe it.

Gates said he had "several meetings" with Jeffrey Epstein.

The documents show at least 205 dates with meetings or dinners and at least 93 of…

— Kevin Bass (@kevinnbass) February 21, 2026

Over the past weeks, I've been making the point that by and large, the Epstein files are yesterday's news, but a few people like Rep Thomas Massie keep expecting that there are still big revelations to be made. But let's put even the biggest headlines in perspective. According to Chrome AI, the news about the current Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor first broke 15 years ago:

February 2011: The first public report appeared in The Mail on Sunday, featuring an interview with [Virginia] Giuffre and the now-infamous photograph of Andrew with his arm around her waist. While the initial article did not name the prince for legal reasons, the photo made the connection clear, creating an immediate crisis for the royal family.

Or Bill Gates: he had been reducing his role at Microsoft since 2000, but he formally left the board in 2020 after an investigation into a relationship with a Microsoft employee. According to Chrome AI, allegations of a relationship between Gates and Jeffrey Epstein first emerged soon after Epstein's death.

Initial Reports (August–September 2019): Shortly after Epstein's death in August 2019, outlets like the CNBC and The New York Times began reporting on multiple meetings between the two men that occurred between 2011 and 2014. These meetings reportedly began after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex crimes.

Divorce Revelations (May 2021): Reports following the announcement of Bill and Melinda French Gates' divorce suggested that his ties to Epstein were a major factor in the split. During this time, it was alleged that Gates had visited Epstein's Manhattan townhouse at least three times.

The X post embedded above summarizes the major contradictions between Bill Gates's public statements about his relationship with Epstein and the record that's emerging from the latest tranche of Epstein files released by the Justice Department. I think a key takeaway from the Gates-Epstein relationship is that Gates's character flaws had led to the end of his business career for reasons unrelated to Epstein, at least publicly. His divorce came after the Epstein revelations, but likely resulted from additional factors not directly related to Epstein.

And irrespective of what else comes out, Gates has already lost his business career, his family, and his reputation, while the statute of limitations has expired on any crimes he may have committed short of murder. In other words, he's already been held accountable as much as he ever can be.

On the other hand, the X post links to a summary of the new information on the Epstein-Gates relationship that has been gleaned from the Justice Department files.

The documents reveal not a handful of awkward encounters but an extensive, multi-year operational partnership spanning 2009 to at least 2019. Gates visited Epstein's 71st Street townhouse repeatedly, met him at the Four Seasons, the Core Club, and in Paris. In February-March 2013, Gates spent three consecutive days with Epstein: meetings at the Four Seasons at 2pm and again at 10:15pm, another meeting the next day at 2pm, then a planned flight to Palm Beach on Epstein's plane -- with a lunch with Woody Allen squeezed in between.

. . . Epstein's staff treated Gates visits as major events. Schedules were circulated to the full team including the pilot, Lawrence Visoski. Regular Skype check-ins between Gates, Epstein, and Larry Cohen (Gates' scheduler at bgC3) were scheduled like clockwork: "can you skype this week?" "9:30am PST on the 27th work?"

The documents show that Epstein had a close personal relationship not only with Gates, but with Boris Nikolic, Gates' science advisor, who was also a backup executor of Epstein's will. The Kathryn Ruemmler relationship, up to now limited to flirty e-mails calling Epstein "Uncle Jeffrey", was actually much more extensive:

One of the most remarkable threads in the documents is Epstein's placement of Kathryn Ruemmler -- former White House Counsel under President Obama -- as Gates' personal attorney. Epstein pitched her to Gates and Larry Cohen in June 2014:

. . . What the documents also show: Ruemmler was simultaneously in a 9-year personal relationship with Epstein (2010-2019). She debriefed Epstein on her meetings with Gates and his leadership, including Brad Smith. By 2017, she was "placed with Bill and Melinda." A convicted sex offender installed his girlfriend as the personal attorney to the world's richest man.

This gives much more context to Ruemmler's resignation as chief counsel to Goldman Sachs -- it would portray her as completely untrustworthy and call into question the judgment of whomever hired her there. The summary concludes,

Bill Gates did not meet Jeffrey Epstein "several times" for philanthropy. He maintained a deep, multi-year financial and operational relationship with a convicted sex offender who structured his investment funds, mediated hush payments to his own staff, probed his private financial holdings, controlled who had access to him, edited his Foundation's internal communications, installed his girlfriend as Gates' personal attorney, infiltrated six layers of Gates Foundation leadership, and held a draft email in his files describing Gates' involvement with Russian girls, drugs, and illicit trysts.

This suggests a deeper pattern to other Epstein relationships, such as those with Les Wexner, Andrew, and Bill Clinton. On the orher hand, it gives some credibility to Alan Dershowitz's most recent remarks:

According to Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, if his client had told him he worked for Israeli intelligence or the CIA Dershowitz could have gotten him off the charges with no jail time.

Essentially, Dershowitz is saying any sex criminals or pedophiles that work for intelligence agencies would never receive any prison sentences.

Epstein didn't need spy agency connections to make his money; he seems to have been able to pick billionaires' pockets without anyone's help.

There have been highly insightful reassessments of Gilded Age robber barons like Jay Gould, John D Rockefeller, J P Morgan, and E H Harriman in recent years, which have generally concluded that they were honest, hardworking men with particular talents who came by their fortunes largely within then-legal and even ethical constraints. Their vices, such as they were, were at least conventional. Will we conclude the same about the likes of Bill Gates?