In an interview with Australian news site 9News, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that his association with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was "foolish.""I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him,” said Epstein during his interview in Australia.Speaking about an email in which Epstein claims Gates had contracted an STI from a "Russian girl," he said, "The email is false. I don't know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?" While Gates doesn't deny he had a relationship with Epstein, he says that he "only went to dinners" with the child sex trafficker.."I never went to the island, I never met any women," saying that as more files are released, he feels his innocence will be proven."And so, the more that comes out, the more clear it'll be that, although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behaviour.”He also said that he only ever sought Epstein's company to get funding for the many charities he runs."The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end."Gates claims that the only reason he associated with Epstein was because of his connections to other rich and powerful individuals; he also denies the claims about the STI and that he tried to give his ex-wife an antibiotic without her knowledge.