Bill Gates hires top counsel ahead of Oversight Committee Epstein interview

Bill Gates turned to a former top House Oversight investigator as he faced a closed-door, transcribed interview with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a sign of how seriously the panel’s Epstein inquiry is being treated on both sides of the table. The move put Jake Greenberg, who once served as the committee’s top investigative counsel, into a familiar but politically sensitive role: helping a high-profile witness prepare for questioning in a matter with reputational, legal and evidentiary stakes.

The committee set Gates’ interview for June 10 in Washington, D.C., after first asking him to appear on May 19 at 10:00 a.m. ET. The March 3 letter to Gates said lawmakers were reviewing the alleged mismanagement of the federal government’s investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, the operation of sex-trafficking rings, how Epstein and Maxwell sought to curry favor and exercise influence to protect their activities, and possible violations of ethics rules by elected officials.

Gates was one of seven people the committee sought to question in transcribed interviews, alongside Doug Band, Leon Black, Lesley Groff, Sarah Kellen, Kathryn Ruemmler and Ted Waitt. Committee leaders said the request for Gates was based on public reporting, Justice Department documents and materials obtained by investigators that suggested he had information useful to the probe. That framing matters: transcribed interviews are not casual conversations, but formal sessions designed to preserve a detailed record that can be compared against documents, timelines and other witnesses’ accounts.

Hiring Greenberg is notable because former senior committee staffers often know how investigators build a record and where inconsistencies are likely to surface. In high-profile oversight cases, that can shape everything from how a witness answers questions to when an answer should be narrowed, clarified or left for later legal review. Watchdog experts viewed such an arrangement as not unusual for someone under scrutiny and not necessarily an ethics violation.

The broader backdrop is the federal government’s renewed effort to compile and release Epstein-related records. The Justice Department’s Epstein Library, updated June 9, said it contains materials responsive to the Epstein Files Transparency Act and includes redacted records with victim names and other identifying details removed. For Gates, the pressure extends beyond the interview room: renewed scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein has also affected the Gates Foundation, making the optics of testimony preparation part of the story as much as the testimony itself.