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Epstein Aftershocks & A Gates Divorce Deadline

The view from inside Bill and Melinda’s $50 billion philanthropy. Plus notes on another Musk-Thiel acolyte signing on with DeSantis, and a Biden fundraising journey to the Wall Street of the West.

Photo: Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Theodore Schleifer
May 30, 2023

For Bill Gates, there is never a good time for Jeffrey Epstein to be in the news, but not now, please. After all, it has been just about two years since Bill and Melinda French Gates tweeted that they were getting divorced, a carefully choreographed and highly lawyered decoupling that proceeded with all the drama of an 8-K filing. The split sent shockwaves through the cloistered world of big-money philanthropy, where the Gateses still preside over a $50 billion foundation. Literally millions of people around the globe depend on their largesse.