In the months since the Justice Department released the so-called Epstein files,
some powerful people have lost their jobs and their credibility as a result of their relationships with him.
But for a long while, it seemed that one important person who was not tarnished was Bill Gates.
Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest people in the world.
He's one of the most influential people in the world.
That's our colleague Emily Glazer, and she's been covering Bill Gates for years.
Why hasn't Bill Gates' reputation just collapsed?
Like, how is he still doing all these interviews and speaking at conferences
when we had seen one by one other powerful people tied to Epstein resign,
lose their jobs, getting investigated by international governments?
How is Bill still kind of like doing his thing?
And why does it matter?
Why should we care about Bill Gates' reputation?
His reputation matters because that is the thing holding a lot of his whole infrastructure together.
That is why people still continue to meet with him, why he has influence over policy, why people want his money.
I've talked to someone recently who said, when you say it's tied to Bill Gates, the answer is almost automatically yes.
And I think a lot of people don't even realize how much influence
and power he has because it's so carefully crafted and controlled.
And it turned out his reputation was crumbling.
We just hadn't realized it yet because they were really trying to keep it under wraps.