The newly released Epstein files have reopened a chapter Bill Gates has been trying to close for years. At the center is a 2013 email in which Epstein allegedly boasts about Gates’ encounters with Russian women, an STD, and a request for antibiotics meant to be slipped to Melinda without her knowledge. To Gates’ camp, this is not evidence, but a window into Epstein’s manipulative tactics: a desperate attempt to inflate his influence by dragging a global figure into his web.

Gates’ spokesperson has condemned the claims as “absolutely absurd and completely false,” framing the documents as proof of Epstein’s frustration that their relationship never became what he wanted. Gates himself has already called his meetings with Epstein “a huge mistake,” insisting they yielded nothing for his philanthropy. Yet with every new release, the past resurfaces, forcing the Gates family to live through a scandal they insist is built on lies.