Gates made the mea culpa while speaking to The New York Times Dealbook Conference ‐ saying that by sitting down with Epstein he helped legitimize the convicted sexual predator.
"I made a mistake in judgment that I thought that those discussions would lead, literally, to billions of dollars going to global health. It turned out that was a bad judgment," said 64-year-old Gates.
"And I gave him some benefit by the association. So I made a doubly wrong mistake there," he added.
Epstein died in federal lock up in lower Manhattan on August 10 after he was busted by the FBI for sex trafficking.
Theories that Epstein was murdered have swirled since his death, with his brother, Mark Epstein, saying Wednesday that "my brother might have been murdered."