Newly unsealed court documents from the long-running legal aftermath of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases include multiple references to the late British physicist Stephen Hawking, whose name appears in an email that also mentions former U.S. President Bill Clinton and other well-known figures.
The email in question was sent by Epstein to Maxwell in January 2015 during Virginia Giuffre’s civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell. In it, Epstein suggested Maxwell could “issue a reward” to any of Giuffre’s acquaintances who would come forward and help disprove what he described as allegations made by Giuffre — including a “new version in the Virgin Islands that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.”
The reference to Hawking in the email was clearly framed by Epstein as part of a strategy to undermine other accusations, not as evidence of wrongdoing on Hawking’s part. There is no indication in the publicly released files that Giuffre herself ever actually accused Hawking of misconduct. In fact, court filings, expert statements and subsequent legal reviews make clear that Hawking was never accused of sexual misconduct or criminal activity in connection with the Epstein case.
Hawking, who died in 2018, had visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island in 2006 to attend a science conference funded by Epstein, along with other prominent researchers — a fact unrelated to the legal allegations.
Legal analysts and media reports stressed that names appearing in the documents do not amount to verified allegations of criminal conduct. Many names surfaced simply because of social connections, travel logs, or as part of lawyers’ efforts to challenge or defend claims in court.
The release of these documents — which include thousands of pages of emails, testimony excerpts and exhibits — has reignited public interest in Epstein’s circle of associates, but sources emphasize that context and corroboration are essential before drawing conclusions about any individual mentioned.
