Kenneth Glad
The release has drawn renewed attention to several well-known figures mentioned in the records, including the late British physicist Stephen Hawking. His family has now addressed online speculation surrounding his inclusion in the filings.
On 20 February, a fresh batch of court documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein was unsealed in a US federal court, part of continuing civil litigation involving his estate and proceedings connected to Ghislaine Maxwell.
The records were posted to the public docket system and span thousands of pages of emails, contacts and travel references gathered during earlier investigations.
The documents are dense.
Among the many names listed is Stephen Hawking. The late British physicist is not accused of any crime in the material, but his repeated appearance has fuelled discussion online.
Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reports that Hawking’s name appears more than 250 times in the filings, a figure the outlet says is based on its own review of the documents.
Disclosures of this size often contain passing references to academics and public figures without alleging wrongdoing, and US authorities have not brought charges against Hawking.
For years, Epstein sought proximity to respected scientists, donating to research initiatives and sponsoring conferences that drew leading thinkers. At the time, such invitations were not widely treated with suspicion inside academic circles.
That only shifted after his criminal cases became public, when earlier associations were re-examined more critically.
Hawking attended one of those gatherings in 2006, a cosmology conference titled “Energy of Empty Space That Isn’t Zero,” held in the US Virgin Islands, where he was scheduled to speak.
Photographs from the trip show him at informal events, including a beach barbecue and a submarine excursion adapted to accommodate his physical limitations.
One image, included in the February release, shows Hawking seated between two women in bikinis at a hotel in St Thomas. No publicly available photographs place him alongside Epstein.
The photo became the focal point.
Because of Hawking’s stature, it quickly spread across social media platforms. That nuance has been lost in some online discussions.
The Sunday Guardian reports that Hawking’s family issued a statement after the image resurfaced in connection with the Department of Justice release.
According to the British outlet, a family spokesperson said the two women pictured were his long-time carers from the United Kingdom, who travelled with him because of his medical condition.
“Professor Hawking made some of the greatest contributions to physics in the 20th century while at the same time being the longest-known survivor of motor neurone disease, a debilitating condition which left him reliant on a ventilator, voice synthesiser, wheelchair and round-the-clock medical care. Any insinuation of inappropriate conduct on his part is wrong and far-fetched in the extreme,” the family said.
The filings also reference previously reported allegations by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, described in court papers as denied and unsubstantiated, along with an anonymous FBI tip recorded as unverified.
Hawking, who died in 2018 aged 76, helped shape modern thinking about black holes and cosmology.
As Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, he held one of academia’s most prestigious posts and, over time, became one of the most recognisable scientists in the world.
Sources: Ekstra Bladet, The Sunday Guardian
