WASHINGTON — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates claimed in a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday that Jeffrey Epstein used Gates’ marital infidelities as “leverage” to keep the billionaire in Epstein’s circle.

In an opening statement before the House Oversight Committee, Gates denied all knowledge of the deceased pedophile’s criminal conduct but admitted associating with Epstein to further his global philanthropic goals between 2011 and 2014.

“I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone,” he said. “While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated.”

But Gates also disclosed that Epstein learned of him having “been unfaithful in my marriage” and sought “to use information about my infidelities — in addition to many lies that he layered on top — to pressure me to re-engage with him.”

“He was unsuccessful in this effort, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda,” Gates added.

In February, the computer whiz had confessed to employees at the Gates Foundation that he engaged in two extramarital affairs with Russian women, at least one of whom appears to have been used by Epstein to attempt to extort money from Gates.

Gates also reportedly acknolwedged that he had been accused of more than 20 extramarital liaisons during divorce proceedings from his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.

“I see now that [Epstein] sought to build an image of legitimacy around himself, using connections to reputable and powerful people to deflect scrutiny and attempt to rehabilitate his reputation,” Gates also said in his statement.

“I was so focused on the possibility of raising funds for global health that I allowed that goal to override my better judgment.”

Gates wore a strained grin as he entered and exited his interview with the Oversight Committee, pausing before his interview only to say: “I hope my testimony is helpful to the important work of the committee to find justice for the victims.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters during a break in the grilling that Gates’ comments on Epstein betrayed a “theme” of “blackmail” and Epstein “using his power of information against others.”

Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) stressed that the committee was not “accusing Bill Gates of any wrongdoing” but were interested in hearing more about the philanthropist’s relationship with Epstein, as well as the financier’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Emails and photos released by the Justice Department — in addition to remarks by Melinda French Gates about Epstein having contributed to the dissolution of the couple’s 27-year marriage — have complicated the image Gates has sought to cultivate as the leader of one of the largest private charitable foundations.

Epstein drafted one email salaciously claiming that Gates had asked for the financier’s help “in order to deal with the consequences of sex with Russian girls,” which the philanthropist’s rep called “absolutely absurd and completely false.”

On Wednesday, Gates said he did not contract a sexually transmitted disease as a result of his dalliances and never tried to acquire drugs for that purpose, according to a source familiar with the interview.

Epstein also fumed in emails over Gates’ dalliances with the two Russian women: Bridge player Mila Antonova and a former employee at TerraPower, a nuclear power company.

“The richest man in the world is so cheap,” Epstein groused in a 2017 message to Boris Nikolic, one of Gates’ advisers at his foundation, “his former bridge girl and toy , lives on a friends sofa.”

At one point, Epstein threatened Gates with exposing the Antonova affair due to Bill’s refusal in joining a prospective philanthropic fund conceived by Epstein and JP Morgan Chase executives, according to the Wall Street Journal.

That money was never paid, foundation reps have said.

Follow The Post’s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis

Epstein, however, paid Antonova so she could attend a programming camp as part her pursuing a career in software development, she told the Journal in 2023.

Nikolic apparently also knew the identity of a third woman who worked as a doctor and had an affair with Gates, but it’s unclear whether Epstein was aware of the flame, the source added.

Photos released by the DOJ also show Gates with Epstein and other powerful men, including at a January 2011 dinner with banker Jes Staley and former Harvard University President Larry Summers  at Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse.

Other images in the so-called “Epstein Files” show Gates posing with women whose faces are redacted. A person familiar with Wednesday’s interview said the billionaire “didn’t know” the identities of many of the women.

Gates told the committee on Wednesday that he first met Epstein in 2011 and was promised “billions of dollars for global health” from the financier’s “tax and estate services” clients.

But after a total of five meetings in person, Gates said the talks reached “a dead-end,” with no “meaningful philanthropic support” having been provided, causing him to cut off contact in December 2014.

Lawmakers and staff on the Oversight Committee pressed further into the unlikely friendship as part of their 15th interview conducted in the bipartisan inquiry of the notorious case.

“I recall being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues, but I did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed,” Gates also said of Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea to Florida prostitution and child prostitution charges — a case that forced him to register as a sex offender.

A source familiar with the Gates interview said that he was aware Epstein’s conviction was releated to sex crimes when their relationship began.

Comer also told reporters he would next seek to ask Epstein’s former criminal defense attorney, the law professor Alan Dershowitz, to interview with the Oversight panel.

“I offered to testify as a witness, and I hope they take me up on that,” Dershowitz told The Post on Wednesday in response.

That request followed an interview with the money manager’s longtime assistant Lesley Groff, as well as other victims or survivors of Epstein’s abuse.

Comer and Garcia have also both suggested Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche should return to answer questions about the DOJ’s release of around 3 million investigative files on Epstein.

Gates recommended that the committee consult some former employees at his foundation, as well as Summers, to further the inquiry.