Stephen Hawking's unexpected link to the Epstein scandal

The man who claimed that the universe was born with the Big Bang joins a list of people apparently related to Jeffrey Epstein.

XINHUA / PHOTOSHOT / CORDON PRESS Hawking at the World Science Festival, an annual gathering

aimed at bringing the most complex issues of science to the public in 2010.

The name of Stephen Hawking , one of the greatest scientific celebrities since Albert Einstein, has been mentioned in the case of Jeffrey Epstein , one of the great scandals of sex trafficking with minors in recent times. The news was surprising to say the least, since the name of the deceased astrophysicist had not appeared publicly until now in the case.

The man who claimed that the universe has not always existed but was born with the Big Bang thus joins a list of people apparently related to Epstein, which also includes names such as former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump or the Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom.

But who was Jeffrey Epstein and how has Stephen Hawking's name ended up linked to his case?

WHO WAS JEFFREY EPSTEIN?

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE VIA ZUMA PRESS WIREJeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his ex-girlfriend, in a photograph released by the United States Attorney's Office.

Before being accused of sexual abuse of minors, Jeffrey Epstein was a millionaire known for his parties . Stars and politicians participated in these, and he celebrated them on his private island or in his luxurious homes. But in 2005, Epstein was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex ; and in 2006 they arrested him.

Subsequently, dozens of other minors also said they were victims of sexual abuse by Epstein. In 2008 she pleaded guilty to charges against a single victim and served 13 months in a prison work release program.

In 2015, one of Epstein's victims - Virginia Giuffre - filed a lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell , the millionaire's ex-girlfriend, who is accused of having helped him recruit the minors. Giuffre testified to having been a victim of sexual abuse by some of the men close to Epstein; She gave the names and surnames of those involved and accused the magnate of having pressured her to have sexual relations with them.

AP, ARCHIVE / BEBETO MATTHEWSVirginia Roberts Giuffre, who sued Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, outside the Manhattan courthouse in 2019.

Giuffre's lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017 in Giuffre's favor. In 2019, a court released about 2,000 pages of documents from the case. New accusations of sex trafficking were made against Epstein, who took his own life in jail pending trial; Ghislaine Maxwell (her ex-girlfriend) was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

WHY IS STEPHEN HAWKING MENTIONED IN THE CASE?

PA WIRE / PA IMAGES / CORDON PRESSStephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018 due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which he was diagnosed with at the age of 21.

Last Thursday, Judge Loretta A. Preska evaluated the case documents and published part of the records; and the name of Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018, appeared among these documents.

However, there is only one reference to the physicist: an email that Epstein sent to Maxwell on January 12, 2015, after Virginia Giuffre filed her lawsuit against the mogul. In this message, Epstein suggested that they could reward anyone who "proved" that the accusations were false and asked his ex-girlfriend to "deny" the participation of Hawking, whose name is misspelled, in an orgy with underage girls.

In addition, images of Stephen Hawking have been recovered on Epstein's private island from 2006 , where he had attended an academic event . But it has not yet been resolved whether Hawking's visit was limited only to the conference or why Epstein sought to contradict the accusation in which the scientist was mentioned.

Likewise, it is still expected that some 250 more documents in reference to the lawsuits made against Epstein will be published in the future, which may shed light on these questions and others that still have no answers today