Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" regarding his connection to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, a spokesperson for the philanthropic group told Reuters in a written statement Tuesday.

The spokesperson's comments came in response to a Wall Street Journal report, which said that Gates had apologized to staff at the town hall over his ties to Epstein.

Documents released by the Department of Justice indicate that Gates and Epstein met repeatedly after Epstein was released from prison to discuss expanding the Microsoft founder's philanthropy.

According to the Journal, Gates told staff that it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender. The report cited a recording of the comments Gates made in the town hall.

"I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made," he said, according to the newspaper.

The Journal added that Gates also acknowledged having two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but that they did not involve Epstein's victims.

"I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," Gates told the staff, according to the report.

Documents released by DOJ also included pictures of the Microsoft founder posing with women whose faces are obscured. Gates has previously said that the relationship with Epstein was confined to philanthropy-related discussions and has said it was a mistake to meet with him.

According to the Journal, Gates told the foundation's staff that the images were pictures that Epstein asked him to take with Epstein's assistants after their meetings.

"To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him," Gates added, according to the report.

A spokesperson for the Gates Foundation told Reuters that Gates held a scheduled town hall with the employees and answered questions on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files.

"In the town hall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions."

The spokesperson also said the Gates Foundation statement acknowledged what was shared by the billionaire at the town hall, and the statement is all that the foundation would say about the report.

Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation said it never paid Epstein any money or employed him at any time.

The billionaire also pulled out of India's AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote address last week.

The Gates Foundation, chaired by Gates and started by him and his then-wife in 2000, is one of the world's biggest funders of global health initiatives.

Epstein died in 2019 in federal custody while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.