Billionaire Microsoft co-founder and jet-setting philanthropist Bill Gates apologized to staffers at his foundation for his connection to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and admitted to affairs with two Russian women, whom he assured were not victims of Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme. Gates fessed up to the affairs during a Gates Foundation town hall on Tuesday, and said that Epstein — whom he developed a relationship with beginning in 2011 — found out about the sexual encounters. Gates claimed, however, that his trysts with a Russian bridge player and a Russian nuclear physicist were not connected to Epstein’s trafficking scheme, The Wall Street Journal reported. “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates told his staff, adding, “To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around [Epstein].” “I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” he acknowledged. In 2010, Gates met a Russian bridge player who was in her 20s. The young Russian woman was introduced to Epstein in 2013, according to The Wall Street Journal. Epstein reportedly paid for the woman to attend school for a software coding course, and in a 2017 email, the financier asked Gates to reimburse him. The nuclear physicist with whom Gates admitted to having an affair previously worked at one of Gates’ companies, but Gates did not say if the sexual relationship began while the physicist was under his employment, the Journal reported. Gates told his staff during the town hall meeting that he traveled with Epstein multiple times, but “never stayed overnight” with the convicted pedophile and never visited Epstein’s infamous island. Gates’ apology comes after Epstein-related emails from 2013 released by the Justice Department hinted at Gates’ affairs with the Russian women and suggested the trysts were illegally facilitated. One of the emails released by the Justice Department was a message Epstein sent to himself that appears to be a draft of a resignation letter from Gates’ former science adviser, Boris Nikolic. In the message, the writer admits to “facilitating … illegal trysts, with married women” and helping Gates “get drugs, in order to deal with the consequences of sex with russian [sic] girls.” “In my role as his right hand I have been asked and wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate, to the ethically unsound and have been repeatedly asked to do thing[s] that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal,” the message continues. Last month, a representative for Gates said the claims made in the 2013 email “are absolutely absurd and completely false” and come from a “proven, disgruntled liar.” “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 Gates representative added. According to Gates, Epstein only found out about the affairs because Nikolic told him. Nikolic told the Journal that the emails found on Epstein’s server “were not written on my behalf or at my request.” Gates has not been accused of committing any crimes connected to Epstein or in relation to his sexual encounters with the Russian women. The 2013 email also references a “severe marital dispute” between Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates. The couple divorced in 2021, a process that began shortly after reports of Bill’s close relationship with Epstein began circulating in 2019. Bill told his staff on Tuesday that he first met Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein pled guilty to procuring a child for prostitution in 2008. Melinda first expressed concerns about his relationship with Epstein in 2013, but he continued to meet with the disgraced financier. “To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing,” Gates said of his ex-wife. Gates claimed he was aware of an issue that limited Epstein’s ability to travel, but said that he didn’t bother to look into Epstein’s background. “It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein,” the Microsoft co-founder added. “I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.”