Emily Glazer

Bill had gone for many, many, many, many years.

And before that meeting, people around him advised him not to go.

Microsoft has a CEO summit every year, and Bill usually hosts this dinner with CEOs at his house.

And I've talked to CEOs that have told me it's one of their favorite events of the year.

It's amazing, and they get there by boat, and it's like both really great conversation and also a spectacular setting.

I think it's not like a simple answer.

I think the bigger thing here is how much deeper those ties went and that they are at odds with what Bill and his team have said over and over and over again for many years.

From my reporting, I know that there's a hope that it kind of ends and quiets down after this congressional questioning.

A lot of the focus has been leading up to this.

It's kind of been this like marker of sorts, like internally in his empire, they know they're going to keep dealing with more and more chatter and news stories and issues tied to the congressional questioning and that it's going to keep coming until then and that the hope is that it quiets after that.

I think it goes back to these nonprofit partners still needing his money.

You know, I've talked to a number of nonprofits, and because federal funding has dried up, they'd rather keep doing their work and take what they think may be like tainted money than not do it.

So if the nonprofits start saying, we don't want your money anymore, that is going to be a really interesting next chapter.

But I think his legacy is complicated.

He has done a lot of good, and there's no denying that.

You can't take away all he's done with Microsoft, all he's done with the Gates Foundation.

You can't take away all of that.

But I think you certainly cannot take away these ties to Epstein.

He can't really get away from them now.

They're like interwoven now in his story.