Jeffrey Epstein told accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell she could offer a cash reward to friends of accuser Virginia Giuffre if they could help prove sex claims were false.
Files reveal an email the billionaire paedophile sent about a claim that British physicist Stephen Hawking was in an “underage orgy”.
Newly released court documents reveal the disgraced financier, who took his life in 2019, sent an email in 2015 showing he was happy to issue a reward to counter her claims, shortly after Ms Guiffre filed a civil claim in the US.
The disclosed filings show that, in the same email, Epstein told Maxwell the “strongest” of Ms Giuffre’s claims was that former US President Bill Clinton had dined on Epstein’s private island. Mr Clinton has denied this.
It said: “You can issue a reward to any of Virginia’s friends, acquaint, family that come forward and help prove her allegations are false. The strongest is the Clinton dinner, and the new version in the Virgin Islands that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.”
The globally-revered Cambridge professor had previously visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island in 2006 as part of a conference funded by the billionaire, with pictures showing him at a barbecue on Little St James.
This was months before Epstein was first charged with child sex offences, which included procuring a minor for prostitution.
Prof Hawking, who died in 2018 at 76, is one of more than 170 people whose previously redacted names have been made public after a US judge ordered documents relating to Epstein could be made public.
The first tranche was released on Wednesday.
Also published among documents as part of Ms Giuffre’s civil claim against Maxwell was the transcript of the socialite’s videotaped evidence given under oath.
During her deposition, Maxwell claimed she could only recall Prince Andrew on Epstein’s island once.
Asked whether any girls under the age of 18 were present on that one occasion, Maxwell replied: “There were no girls on the island at all. No girls, no women, other than the staff who work at the house.
“Girls meaning, I assume you are asking underage, but there was nobody female outside of the cooks and the cleaners.”
Royal pariah Andrew was stripped of his royal duties and patronages in the wake of a scandal in which Virginia Roberts, now known as Giuffre, claimed she was a victim of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, alleged he had sex with her in the London home of Maxwell when she was 17.
He has consistently and vehemently denied all allegations, but paid millions of pounds to settle a civil sexual assault case.
