Billionaire and philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates met with financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein many times. But false claims about the location of those meetings and why the two met are spreading online.
A short video posted to Instagram on May 20 starts with an image of Gates along with text on the screen: "37 Epstein visits" and "Bill Gates."
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Gates and Epstein did meet together, multiple times, to discuss philanthropic opportunities. But records don’t show that Gates went to Epstein’s island, located in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Reuters fact checked a similar claim in 2020, a year after Epstein was found dead by suicide in a jail cell following criminal charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Subpoenaed flight logs obtained by the press showed that Gates flew on Epstein’s plane once, on March 1, 2013, from Teterboro airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. The records do not show that he flew to Epstein’s island.
Gates and Epstein met repeatedly beginning in 2011, The New York Times reported, including at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and in Florida. He stopped meeting with him in 2013, the paper reported. Gates’ employees also visited Epstein’s mansion. Gates has said before that he...
The White House criticized Trump for spreading dangerous misinformation. 5 min SWANNANOA, N.C. — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declined to condemn violent threats to Federal Emergenc...