“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Bill Gates told his staff at a Gates Foundation town hall late last month—an attempt at sunshine, or at least damage control, as the long shadow of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has stretched out over the most powerful private philanthropy in the world. According to The Wall Street Journal, which reviewed a recording of Gates’s remarks, he confirmed for the first time publicly that he had affairs with two Russian women, seeming to address what Epstein described in one of the 3.5 million files as Gates’s “illicit trysts.” Gates generally apologized for his relationship with Epstein, acknowledging that he continued to meet with the disgraced financier through 2014 and flew on his jet, while insisting that he “never stayed overnight” or visited Epstein’s island. But Epstein’s relationship with the Gates Foundation is another question. Other than a statement on the foundation’s website saying, in part, that “we will continue to review materials released in connection with [Epstein’s communication with Gates Foundation staff],” the convicted sex offender’s …