House Republicans have asked billionaires Bill Gates and Leon Black to testify before Congress about their past ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The House Oversight Committee sent letters Tuesday asking Gates, Black and Goldman Sachs’ outgoing general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler to appear before the panel as it investigates the Epstein files.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee’s chairman, has already interviewed Bill and Hillary Clinton as part of the probe.
Comer said Tuesday that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has also agreed to testify about his ties to Epstein.
Gates recently told employees at a Gates Foundation town hall that he had affairs with two Russian women — including bridge player Mila Antonova — while apologizing for his past association with Epstein, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Gates insisted he “did nothing illicit” and said spending time with Epstein was “a huge mistake.”
A spokesperson for Gates told The Post on Wednesday that the Microsoft co-founder “welcomes the opportunity to appear” before the committee.
“While he never witnessed or participated in any of Epstein’s illegal conduct, he is looking forward to answering all the committee’s questions to support their important work,” a rep for Gates told The Post.
Black, the co-founder of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, paid Epstein $158 million for tax-planning and estate advisory services between 2012 and 2017, according to an outside law firm hired by Apollo.
Black, who stepped down as Apollo’s chief executive in 2021, has said he regretted his association with Epstein and was unaware of his criminal conduct.
“Mr. Black paid Epstein for tax and estate planning work and he had no awareness of Epstein’s criminal activity,” a spokesperson for Black told The Post on Wednesday.
“He looks forward to answering the committee’s questions, providing additional clarity and furthering their work.”
Black and his successor, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, were hit this week with a proposed shareholder class-action lawsuit accusing them of misleading investors about the firm’s dealings with Epstein.
The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court alleges Apollo falsely denied in regulatory filings in 2021 and 2022 that it had done business with Epstein, even though he allegedly communicated frequently with senior leadership about matters tied to the firm.
Rowan, who succeeded Black as chief executive in 2021, has insisted the firm never had a business relationship with Epstein and that his own interactions were limited to the financier’s tax work for Black.
“I didn’t like him for my own reasons, he wasted my time,” Rowan said at a Bloomberg event Tuesday, adding that “even from the grave, he’s wasting my time.”
A spokesperson for Apollo told The Post on Wednesday: “We believe this case is without merit.”
“Neither Mr. Rowan nor anyone else at Apollo (excluding Leon Black) had either a business or personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as was confirmed by an independent, transparent and thorough investigation in 2021,” the company rep told The Post.
“There was no new information in the recent releases.”
Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama who later became Goldman Sachs’ general counsel, has said her relationship with Epstein was purely professional.
But emails later revealed the two exchanged friendly messages and gifts, with Ruemmler at times referring to him as “Uncle Jeffrey” and “sweetie,” even as she has insisted she had no knowledge of any criminal activity and regrets ever knowing him.
“Ms. Ruemmler welcomes the opportunity to appear before the Committee,” a spokesperson for Ruemmler told The Post.
“At the time she interacted with Jeffrey Epstein, she was a practicing criminal defense attorney and shared a client with him. She has done nothing wrong and had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity on his part.”
Ruemmler announced last month that she would be stepping down as Goldman’s top lawyer later this year. Goldman declined to comment.
Epstein was a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who moved in elite political and business circles before his arrest in 2019 on federal charges of running a sex-trafficking ring involving underage girls.
He died later that year in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial, in what authorities ruled a suicide.
Recently released Justice Department files related to the Epstein investigation have renewed scrutiny of his connections to powerful figures in finance, politics and business.
The documents include emails, photographs and other records that have prompted congressional investigators to seek testimony from several people who previously interacted with him.
