Long before divorce, Bill Gates had reputation for questionable behavior, including an affair with an employee and multiple meetings with Jeffrey Epstein

willingly hanging out a dozen times with a man who’s been charged with child prostitution... well if my friend did that I’d want nothing to do with them

Are we really talking about a friend then? Or more of an acquaintance? When something as life altering as being charged with a sex crime happens, that's when you need friends the most.

I have no idea what Gates knew or didn't know back when he spent time with Epstein, or if they could even be called friends. Maybe it's evidence that Gates is scum, maybe not, I don't have anything approaching enough information to judge.

So, straying from what I imagine was the spirit of your comment, I think the question of what we'd do in a comparable (though necessarily less egregious) situation is interesting. What Epstein did was so completely evil that there's not much grey area available for conversation.

Putting Epstein aside... If a friend was charged with something awful, personally I'd consider being there in some way for them. It wouldn't mean I approved of what they were alleged to have done, it would mean that a human being I care about was alone and afraid. I would (likely) be on a very short list of people who might show up.

If they were convicted, and I believed they did it, that would be different. Even then, though, maybe I'd write, or visit. Being there for a broken person doesn't have to mean you think what they did was acceptable.

I'd have to consider what the potential guilt by association might do to my own life, and the lives of people close to me. I'd be potentially risking cancellation. Which feels wrong.

I'm really not a fan of assuming guilt by association, especially when the association wasn't exactly a strong or frequent one. And I personally think this other bit of news adequately explains why Gates likely met with Epstein, given who else was at some of those meetings and the philanthropic moves that the Gates Foundation took immediately after them:

Bill Gates Thought Jeffrey Epstein Was His Ticket to a Nobel Prize, Ex-Staffer Says

The rendezvous was revealed by Dagens Næringsliv, Norway’s largest business newspaper, in an October 2020 report. At the time of the meeting, Jagland was chair of the committee which awards the Peace Prize, and Gates was a potential candidate for the honor.

The meeting also included members of the International Peace Institute (IPI)—a think tank run by former Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen that Epstein’s secret charity lavished with a $375,000 donation in 2017. (Rød-Larsen resigned from the New York-based IPI last October after it was revealed his group received $650,000 in donations from Epstein, who also provided him with a $130,000 personal loan.)

According to DN, Jagland said Gates and Epstein arrived at the Strasbourg meeting together, and Epstein introduced Gates to IPI for a “polio eradication project.” Rød-Larsen didn’t attend the meeting but is a longtime friend of Jagland.

Rød-Larsen also had longstanding ties to Epstein, who issued press releases touting his support of IPI while he worked to rehabilitate his image following his 2008 conviction in Palm Beach, Florida. (As The Daily Beast reported Sunday, Gates allegedly encouraged Epstein to revamp his reputation in the media.)

In an email to DN, Jagland claimed Gates asked to meet him while he was in France and that their discussion centered not on the Nobel, but around human rights organization Council of Europe’s work on counterfeit vaccines. Asked if he thought it was a conflict to socialize with a possible Nobel laureate, Jagland told the newspaper: “Bill Gates was not nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.”

Not long after the Strasbourg gathering, the Gates Foundation granted IPI millions of dollars; records on the foundation’s website show IPI received a $2.5-million grant in October 2013, $5.5 million in March 2014, and $256,968 in June 2019 and July 2020.

And, in September 2013, Bill and Melinda Gates spoke at IPI’s “Eighth Annual Ministerial Working Dinner on the Middle East.” A writeup of the event indicates the couple were “special guests” who “discussed the ongoing efforts of their foundation to eradicate polio and cited the connection between health and security.”

When asked about Gates’ meeting with the Nobel committee chairman, a spokesperson for the billionaire directed The Daily Beast to a 2019 statement, which says: “Multiple high-profile people suggested that Bill Gates meet with Epstein because he made claims of being able to bring billions of dollars into philanthropy based on his status as an agent and advisor to wealthy individuals with respect to their giving strategies.

“Given the prospect of helping catalyze significant increases in charitable giving, Gates met with Epstein and others multiple times to discuss philanthropy and the work of his foundation. Although Epstein pursued Gates aggressively, Gates had absolutely no business partnership or personal friendship with Epstein. Gates never socialized with Epstein or attended parties with him.

“It’s become clear that Epstein misrepresented the nature of his meetings with Gates while also working to insert himself behind-the-scenes without Gates’s knowledge. Bill Gates regrets ever meeting with Epstein and recognizes it was an error in judgement to do so.”

cc: @post_below, since you wanted to know more.