Jeffrey Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell she could offer money to Virginia Giuffre's friends if they could help refute claims that Stephen Hawking took part in an 'underage orgy', newly released documents suggest.
In an email from Epstein to Maxwell on January 12, 2015, the pedophile financier suggested that Ms Giuffre had made allegations regarding British physicist and former US President Bill Clinton.
Epstein said she had claimed that Clinton had dined on his private Caribbean island – something the Democratic politician strongly denied – and that Professor Hawking “participated in an orgy for minors.”
The email said: “You can offer a reward to all of Virginia's friends, acquaintances and family who come forward and help prove her accusations are false.
“The strongest is the Clinton dinner, and the new version in the Virgin Islands in which Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.”
Stephen Hawking pictured in 2006 at a conference hosted by Epstein in the US Virgin Islands
During the trip, Professor Hawking took a cruise on a submarine that Epstein had customized especially for him
This is a copy of the email Epstein appears to have sent to Ghislaine Maxwell, urging her to backtrack on the allegations against Professor Hawking
Epstein's motivation for wanting to refute the orgy claims is not made clear.
A copy of the email was among nearly 1,000 pages of documents unsealed by a US court last night.
The files are part of a defamation lawsuit filed against Epstein's madam Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for trafficking underage girls to him.
She was sued by Virginia Roberts, who claims she was forced to have sex with Andrew in 2001, when she was 17. The duke denies that.
Professor Hawking was received by Epstein in March 2006, five months before he was first accused of soliciting prostitution.
Photos that emerged in 2015 show the celebrated physicist enjoying a barbecue before taking a cruise on a submarine that Epstein had specially customized for Professor Hawking – who had never been underwater before.
He was one of 21 internationally renowned scientists to attend a conference on gravity funded by Epstein – who described himself as a “science philanthropist”.
It took place at the £1,500-a-night, five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel on the island of St. Thomas, near Epstein's private 'Island of Sin', Little Saint James.
A post on the blog of the 'Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation' contains details about the conference, called 'The energy of empty space that is not zero'.
It said guests could “meet, discuss, relax on the beach and take a trip to the nearby private island of science philanthropist Jeffrey Epstein, who funded the event.”
It appears that guests divided their time between St Thomas and Little Saint James, where Epstein personally received them.
Hawking died in March 2018 at the age of 76 after living with ALS, a fatal motor neurone disease, for more than 50 years
Epstein's motivation for wanting to refute the orgy claims is not made clear
It is not clear on which island Professor Hawking was depicted.
In addition to Hawking, three Nobel Prize winners were on the trip. Among those depicted is Professor Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist who taught at Arizona State University.
Legal documents claim that Epstein's property was covered in images of naked adolescent girls, but Professor Krauss said – speaking in 2015 – that he saw nothing of the sort.
Hawking died in March 2018 at the age of 76 after living with ALS, a fatal motor neuron disease, for more than 50 years.
The newly released documents also reveal that one of Epstein's alleged sex slaves, known only as Jane Doe 3, has claimed she was told to have intercourse with Prince Andrew during an orgy at Little Saint James.
A 2014 lawsuit alleges that she was “forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor, in three different geographic locations.”
She claims this happened “in London (at Ghislaine Maxwell's apartment), in New York and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands (in an orgy with numerous other underage girls).”
The documents allege that Epstein told Jane Doe 3 to “give the prince what he demanded.” Jane Doe 3 claims Ghislaine Maxwell “facilitated Prince Andrew's sexual assaults by acting as a 'madame' to Epstein.”
Jane Doe 3 is not mentioned in the documents. Virginia Giuffre claims she had sex with Andrew in 2001 when she was 17, which is under 18 in the US Virgin Islands, for example, but not in Britain, where it is 16. 18 and 17 in New York.
Andrew has always strongly denied Ms. Giuffre's claims.