Feb 24 (Reuters) - Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties to late financier and 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 on Tuesday.

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

Documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have indicated that Gates and Epstein met repeatedly after Epstein's prison term to discuss expanding the Microsoft MSFT.O founder's philanthropic efforts.

According to the Journal report, 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 that he had 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 the DOJ also included pictures of the Microsoft MSFT.O founder posing with women whose faces are redacted. Gates has previously said 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 during the town hall, and the statement is all that the foundation would say about the report.

Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation said it did not make any financial payments to Epstein or employ him at any time.

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

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

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna, Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Neil Fullick.)

((ShivaniJayesh.Tanna@thomsonreuters.com))