So Epstein is confirmed to be a blackmailer.
And Bill and Hillary Clinton were pallin' around with him.
That said, this leak feels like it came from Bill Gates' camp. Gates is getting a lot of heat over his association with the pedophile who did not kill himself. This leak seems designed to quell that and to reassure everyone that Gates wasn't interested in what Epstein was peddling at Lolita Island.
But again: Why were Bill and Hillary Clinton interested?
Jeffrey Epstein Appeared to Threaten Bill Gates Over Microsoft Co-Founder's Affair With Russian Bridge Player
The disgraced financier was trying to set up a philanthropic fund that he hoped would include the billionaire as an anchor donor
By Khadeeja Safdar and Emily Glazer
May 21, 2023 11:32 am ET
Jeffrey Epstein discovered that Bill Gates had an affair with a Russian bridge player and later appeared to use his knowledge to threaten one of the world's richest men, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Microsoft co-founder met the woman around 2010, when she was in her 20s. Epstein met her in 2013 and later paid for her to attend software coding school. In 2017, Epstein emailed Gates and asked to be reimbursed for the cost of the course, according to the people familiar with the matter.
The email came after the convicted sex offender had struggled and failed to convince Gates to participate in a multibillion-dollar charitable fund that Epstein tried to establish with JPMorgan Chase. The implication behind the message, according to people who have viewed it, was that Epstein could reveal the affair if Gates didn't keep up an association between the two men.
"Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes. Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates," said a spokeswoman for Gates.
...
The new details about Epstein and Gates reveal a layer of complexity to their relationship, and shed new light on how Epstein operated. In the years between his 2008 conviction and death, Epstein packed his days meeting with politicians, businessmen, academics and celebrities. He provided favors and sought to use the connections for his own purposes. And when the relationships soured, he could turn against people.
Gates, with a net worth in excess of $100 billion and one of the world's biggest philanthropists, was among the most well-known names in Epstein's calendar.
Starting in 2011, Gates had more than a half dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein, including dinners at Epstein's New York townhouse, documents show. Gates flew on Epstein's private plane from New Jersey to Florida in March 2013, according to flight records. That same month the two men met in France with an official on the Nobel Peace Prize committee. They spent much of a day together in New York City in September 2014 meeting other billionaires, the Journal reported.
That's a lot of meetings to spend with someone who is blackmailing you.
Ed Morrissey writes about Epstein offering unexpected "help" to this woman, perhaps attempting to add her to his stable.
Everyone who's still alive insists that they didn't know about Epstein's crimes, including Gates. The Russian bridge player [that Gates had an affair with], Mila Antonova, says Epstein's crimes "disgusted". The man who introduced her to Epstein was Bill Gates' top science advisor at the time, Boris Nikolic, who told the WSJ that his contacts with Epstein revolved around Gates' philanthropic work. Antonova had an idea in 2013 for an online bridge site that would teach people to play the game, and Nikolic connected her with Epstein for possible funding, a project that ended up going nowhere.
However, this seems rather odd, considering her relationship with someone with orders of magnitude more wealth than Epstein. Why not ask her boyfriend for the start-up investment rather than Epstein? And why would Bill Gates' "science advisor" introduce Antonova to Epstein at all for a pitch on an online game site, of all things? It seems very unclear why Antonova's briefly stayed at one if Epstein's NYC flats the following year without any apparent business relationship in place. And even more inexplicably, Epstein paid her tuition for coding school despite hardly knowing her and -- as Antonova insists -- without any conditions or strings attached.
None of this makes a lot of sense, except for the affair between the wealthy man and the beautiful young woman. That may be why the extortion attempt -- Epstein demanded a reimbursement for Antonova's tuition -- didn't work. It's so mundane as to be hardly even a threat, and Gates made the wise choice to ignore it.
Reading between the lines, it certainly seems as though Epstein was culling Gates' secrets for later leverage. He didn't get anything juicy enough on the Microsoft founder to work, but that doesn't mean Epstein always failed.