Epstein Received Sensitive Military Intelligence Amid Gates Foundation Polio Campaign in Pakistan

Justice Department emails show that Epstein helped the Gates Foundation gain access to the Taliban—and received confidential reports and intelligence on Pakistani military operations.

On February 27, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif declared “open war” on Afghanistan after a week of clashes with the Taliban along the border and strikes on military positions in Afghan territory.

For decades, Pakistan’s border regions with Afghanistan have served as a testing ground not only for new military tactics but also for ambitious international organizations and philanthropists who have tried to reshape the region’s public health sector and state institutions.

Documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice reveal surprising details about one particular episode: Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s efforts to eradicate polio in Pakistan. Epstein long maintained a close personal relationship with Gates as well as with officials from his charitable foundation, which he used to steer resources toward politically sensitive research projects and technology firms.

The email correspondence in the disclosures about Pakistan came a few years before the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in neighboring Afghanistan. They also suggest that Epstein’s interest in the region was not strictly limited to public health matters. In a series of emails on the polio vaccination campaign from the International Peace Institute (IPI)—a nongovernmental organization that Epstein funded and often used as a vehicle for backchannel diplomatic efforts—Epstein also received confidential reports and on-the-ground military intelligence, including sensitive information about NATO operations at Zhob Airport, a small domestic airport in Balochistan, only an hour’s flight away from the Afghan capital in Kabul.

Epstein leveraged his relationship with Gates and contacts in the region to become a central figure in Pakistan’s anti-polio efforts from 2013 to 2018. By personally orchestrating the partnership between the Gates Foundation and IPI, Epstein positioned himself as the gatekeeper for the Gates-Pakistan relationship for five years. During this time he also explored developing backchannel contacts with the Taliban over polio eradication.

The fallout for Gates from his connection to Epstein continues. This week, he was scheduled to be one of the headline draws at India’s high-profile AI summit—a gathering to showcase the country’s ambitions to become a global artificial intelligence powerhouse—before the Microsoft founder abruptly announced he was dropping out of the event.

At a town hall meeting Tuesday with foundation staff, Gates acknowledged having two consensual affairs that were known to Epstein, but denied any involvement in illicit activity or contact with victims of sex trafficking, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Gates said he deeply regretted his relationship with Epstein, claiming that he had been aware of an “18-month thing” that had previously restricted Epstein’s ability to travel—a reference to his conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution—but had failed to properly scrutinize Epstein’s background before associating with him.

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Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, right, listens to Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan during their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan on Feb. 17, 2022.

“Everyone Except the Govt Wins.”

In March 2013, Epstein sent an email to Boris Nikolic, Bill Gates’s chief scientific advisor and trusted confidante, with the subject, “example of first polio idea, there are many.” In the email, Epstein goes on to explain a non-profit structure that would allow donors to pledge donations and receive tax benefits for their pledges in the future. “Everyone except the govt wins,” Epstein wrote. “In essence funding todays polio with future estate tax paid to the foundation instead of govt.”

Correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Boris Nikolic, March 2, 2013.

At the time, Epstein had been complaining to Nikolic that Bill Gates did not appreciate the full potential of the Gates Foundation. “I have five or six schemes that would work for polio. bill is welcome to meet for breakfast tomorrow, or both of you come to the island sometime in the next two weeks and i will spend a couple of hours sharing methods,” he wrote in an early March email pitching ideas to Nikolic. Nikolic’s close association with Epstein had begun around 2009, and for the next few years he remained the point person in Epstein’s association with Gates.

Within a few days, Epstein had met with Gates and wrote positively about the meeting in a message to Nikolic on March 5, 2013, “We could definitely structure things so that instead of the us gvt getting 100 billion dollars in esate taxes it would go to the foundaiton,” Epstein wrote. “This is easy, most people would prefer it, if they knew how to accomplish it.” He offered the services of Terje Rød-Larsen, president of the International Peace Institute: “Terje will help with pakistan, and nigeria, you guys should be specific about what you want. very specific.”

The Gates Foundation, Boris Nikolic, Terje Rød-Larsen, and the International Peace Institute did not respond to requests for comment.

Along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, Pakistan was one of the last countries where polio remained endemic. But the politics of the U.S. war in Afghanistan made international NGO work in Taliban-controlled areas of Pakistan difficult—a fact Epstein was acutely aware of. The next day, he emailed Nikolic again, “Re Afghanistan, does foreign corrupt practice act apply to foundation work?” Epstein wanted to know if the law, which prohibits U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials, would apply to payment for the Taliban. In the email thread, Epstein then asked Nikolic if he was free to explore the possibility of bribing the Taliban to build a relationship with the group even if the money could be used for weapons. “Lets assume … the bad buys begin controlling more closely the vaccine procedure, and the only way to win them over is to pay the bad guys to allow vaccines,” Epstein asked. “How would you think about it.”

Correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Boris Nikolic, March 6, 2013.

Rød-Larsen was also working with Epstein in Mongolia and Africa, making mining deals and selling Israeli military-linked security services. Rød-Larsen’s extensive UN and diplomatic connections through IPI (including his previous role as UN Under-Secretary-General) provided the legitimacy and access needed to facilitate these backchannel operations.

Correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Boris Nikolic, March 18, 2013.

In an exchange of proposals between Rød-Larsen and Nikolic, Epstein directly negotiated the scope of work IPI would take and the specific areas they would operate in. By early April 2013, IPI had a roadmap ready, which was delivered directly to Epstein.

IPI received grants for $2.5 million in 2013 and for $5.5 in 2014. IPI also sent another grant proposal to the Gates Foundation for $25 million, but it is unclear if that materialized.

Through his connection to Nikolic, Epstein had established himself within a span of a few months as an indispensable advisor to the Gates Foundation’s global polio work. Since IPI owed its association and a lucrative contract with the foundation to Epstein’s connection, the think tank reported directly to him, as if he were the head of the project.

“The Jihad Capital of the World”

On April 23, 2013, Nasra Hassan, a senior advisor at IPI, traveled to Pakistan on a fact-finding mission for the project. Hassan, a terrorism expert, had spent 27 years at the UN before joining the Association of Austrian Peacekeepers as director of international relations. There’s no indication in the available emails that Hassan ever emailed Epstein directly. She reported to the senior leadership at IPI, including Rod-Larsen and Andrea Pfanzelter, IPI’s Vienna director. Her emails, including the plan for her Pakistan mission, budget, and later findings were all duly forwarded to Epstein.

Nasra Hassan did not respond to a request for comment.

“Finally left Peshawar, the jihad capital of the world,” Hassan wrote to Pfanzelter on April 30, in the middle of the general elections and government transition. In her report, she described her meetings with the officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Hassan also described a phone call she had with a Taliban commander through her fixer. “It appears that religion-based refusal [to polio vaccines] is a very tiny part,” Hassan wrote. “The rest is pressure tactics, one-upmanship, and the vast amount of jobs and money involved.”

The polio work directly overlapped sensitive intelligence and kinetic military operations conducted by the U.S. military and C.I.A., and Hassan’s reports often contained critical information from human sources on the ground in Pakistan. “Since our meeting/tel con in Vienna 15 May, I have been following up. Unfortunately today’s CIA droning to death of the Pak Taliban’s No 2 (Wali ur Rahman) has complicated matters,” Hassan wrote in May to Rød-Larsen, who forwarded it to Epstein.

Hassan lamented that the U.S. had killed a moderate figure critical to talks with the incoming government, and the assassination was a major setback for polio efforts. “He was a pragmatic voice, who opposed suicide attacks in Pakistan (though not in Afghanistan) and who believed in and was ready to negotiate with the ‘new’ Govt in Pak (govt not yet finalized)-- has led to the Pak Taliban TTP suspending talks with the ‘new’ Govt,” she wrote. “This will delay polio-related talks with them, as I was working behind the scenes to get the ‘new’ Govt to include polio issues in their negotiations with TTP.”

In June, however, a crisis emerged when Bill Gates took matters into his own hands and circumvented the informal communication structure implemented by Epstein and Rød-Larsen. As Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party formed a provincial government for the first time in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, with Khan himself emerging as Pakistan’s most popular leader, Pakistani media reported that Gates had written to him directly asking for help contacting the Pakistani Taliban in the FATA region, where many areas were not under the Pakistani government’s control.

“Someone jumped the gun, probably in the Foundation,” Hassan wrote to the senior IPI leadership. “Unfortunately, this will harden the Pak Taliban’s position, and may well jeopardize the back channel very discreet and very confidential outreach that has been going on. I wish BG had consulted you before doing this. Let me see what the fall-out is and how we can rectify the damage caused by this very public affair.” This email, too, was forwarded to Epstein, who in turn forwarded it to Nikolic, who sent it to Gates.

At 3 a.m. the same night, Epstein wrote a separate email to Nikolic, conveying the seriousness of Gates’s blunder: “terje called meto say that the paki press said that bill is having a call with Imran Kahn today publicly , a highly politzied issue, and that this will set back his polio program.”

“Bill just landed to London. He is having back to back mtgs for next three days,” Nikolic wrote back. “No calls with Imran. Not sure if he had a call earlier in week. I will ask him. Neverhelss, he is not having it today or n next few days.”

By November, IPI consolidated its intermediary role between the Gates Foundation and Pakistan’s polio efforts. “I have been given to understand that our efforts are definitely beginning to bear fruit, so far, visavis the hardliners,” Hassan wrote to IPI staff, referring to a religious ruling in support of polio vaccinations by a prominent Pakistani religious leader, Maulana Sami ul-Haq. “Sorry cannot be more concrete in an email, but circumspection & caution are both necessary. Hope this trend continues and that no other external event causes a setback. Wanted to share this on a preliminary, confidential basis right away.” In spite of Hassan’s “caution,” IPI staff immediately forwarded the email to Epstein.

The following month, Pfanzelter forwarded an email to Epstein with the comment, “This is not in the press yet,” explaining that a religious institution accepted by the Taliban was about to issue an edict supporting vaccinations for polio and other diseases. “This outreach to clerics acceptable to the Taliban was a primary reason for latest visit,” the note read, adding, “This fatwa will soon be released in the media, I have received an advance copy (though it is pre-dated). Small steps in the right direction, although other problems remain.”

Correspondence between Andrea Pfanzelter and Jeffrey Epstein, Dec. 10, 2013.

Over the next few years, Epstein continued to receive reports marked “confidential” from Hassan via other senior staff at the IPI. Included in the reports were details about Pakistan’s military operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Some of these reports were only tangentially related to polio and contained non-public, sensitive information related to NATO operations in South Asia. In one such report, for example, Hassan wrote, “Zhob Airport was used by NATO 2009-2011”—a fact that, to this day, has never been acknowledged by Pakistan’s government or reported in the Pakistani media.

In other emails that were forwarded to Epstein, IPI leadership discussed “seemingly negative developments”—such as the lack of progress in talks between Pakistan and the Taliban and efforts by the government to support a breakaway Taliban faction and help it take over South Waziristan—that could have “a positive effect on polio.” One scheme that IPI discussed with the Pakistani Army was the possibility of making “polio-drops arrangements as tribesmen flee the air strikes into settled areas.”

On April 7, 2015, Hassan sent a detailed report on Pakistan’s internal deliberations about cooperating with Saudi Arabia, suggesting she had deep access in the Pakistani government and military establishment, drawing from her long career and expertise in counterterrorism work. None of these deliberations have ever been reported by the Pakistani media.

An email from Nasra Hassan to staff at the International Peace Institute, April 7, 2015.

Later that year, Pakistan’s government publicly acknowledged the death of Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban and its emir in Afghanistan until 2001. On August 10, 2015, Hassan sent a report suggesting she enjoyed special insight and connections within the Taliban, as well as information sourced from the Pakistani military establishment.

A report from Nasra Hassan sent to the International Peace Institute on Aug. 10, 2015.

As with her other reports, the dispatches from Hassan explained the implications of the ongoing military activities on the polio vaccination campaign that was proceeding in parallel.

By the end of 2018, the IPI’s polio project with the Gates Foundation was over and Hassan wrote her farewell email to the staff: “I hope you’ll see zero cases/ES samples in 2019, though I doubt it for known reasons: the cross-border transmission will continue because of of gaps & weaknesses in Pak PEP; issues between Pak/US; & between Kabul & Islamabad including over the Indian presence; the Afghan Taliban see no reason to make concessions & still refuse to talk officially with Afghan Govt.” That email was also forwarded to Epstein.

“No Thanks Needed”

Early in 2013, when Epstein first began working on polio initiatives with the Gates Foundation, Nikolic sent Epstein an email expressing his thanks. In Epstein’s reply, he suggested that eradicating polio was not his lodestar and that he was doing a favor to Gates. “If you wanted to cure polio, no thnx needed,” he wrote. “If i wanted to cure polio no thanks needed, however there is only one of us with this desire.”

By 2017, as the IPI contract and the U.S. war in Afghanistan were winding down, Epstein was searching for other avenues for directing charitable contributions by billionaires for lucrative tax benefits. In a February 2017 conversation over iMessage with Steve Bannon, Epstein and Bannon discussed Gates’s philanthropic endeavors in Pakistan, outlining a cynical strategy for reframing the foundation’s efforts in a way that would be palatable to President Donald Trump.

“bill needs to focus on american problems first and foremost , if he wants deals,” Bannon wrote. “He can also portray certain worldwide iniativies as buying american drugs etc. IT MUST have an american component. donald says it is childish to count the lives at risk in africa and make believe you are doing something for america. or pakistan afhhntan, etc. he points to 8500 killed in chicago vs 2500 killed in afganistan over the past 10 years,” Bannon added.

“bill should be careful very careful as donald could make an example of him using american dollars to help other than america which really needs it. Careful,” Bannon said.

In the same conversion, Epstein and two others discussed zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic method that could enable anonymous, cross-border transfer of funds with cryptocurrency.

Immediately after the conversation, Epstein wrote an email directly to Bill Gates, “have some straight from the horses mouth for you. america first .. malaria. polio. not. . i will try to find a non controversial conduit. cyber health info security big. you’ll hear more zero knowlege proof . medical info etc.”

“Ethics Is Always A Complicated Subject”

In a video interview shot the year before Epstein’s death that has been shared widely on Pakistani social media, Bannon asked him, “Why is your money not dirty money?”

“Ethics is always a complicated subject,” Epstein replied. “With the money I gave to help try to eradicate polio, in Pakistan and India, instead of asking me whether that should be given to these children for vaccines, I think you might want to ask their mothers who received the vaccines who know that their child now won’t get polio. Ask them if Epstein should have helped their people.”

In Pakistan, prominent physicians have expressed shock at the extent of Epstein’s involvement in the country’s polio initiatives, one of the highest priority public health programs over the past two decades.

“The statement by a convicted individual has raised concerns about the involvement of certain entities in Pakistan’s polio campaign. Vaccination is a significant scientific achievement, and transparency in health initiatives is crucial,” said Dr. Asma Nasim, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, in an interview.

Polio vaccination has been the subject of major controversy in Pakistan since the CIA used a fake polio vaccination campaign to collect DNA samples from Osama bin Laden’s family, before the operation to assassinate Bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011. That incident caused the polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan to suffer a serious setback—one of the problems Epstein was claiming to address via IPI.

Epstein’s involvement in post-2011 polio efforts may cause further setbacks, 15 years after Bin Laden’s death. “Pakistan has never recovered from the fake vaccination campaign blow,” said one Pakistani doctor associated with the polio campaign. “Now this entire Epstein saga will just give more oxygen to anti-vaccine hysteria and put millions of Pakistani children at risk. Just the thought of Gates and Epstein ‘helping’ children is enough to give any parent nightmares.”

Sumaira Jajja contributed reporting for this article.