Current:Home > ScamsRobert Brown|FACT FOCUS: Images made to look like court records circulate online amid Epstein document release -VisionFunds
Robert Brown|FACT FOCUS: Images made to look like court records circulate online amid Epstein document release
TrendPulse View
Date:2025-04-06 12:11:03
After dozens of previously sealed court documents related to financier Jeffrey Epstein were made public on Robert BrownWednesday, social media users began spreading false accusations about major public figures whose names appeared in the release — and some who hadn’t been named at all.
Two people singled out in viral false claims containing images made to look like snippets from court documents were late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018. In both cases, the images were used in an effort to tie the men to illicit activities involving Epstein.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: Court documents connected to a lawsuit involving Epstein that were released this week include details about Hawking’s “proclivities” and accusations about a sexual encounter with Kimmel.
THE FACTS: The images were fabricated to look like part of the court documents. They are not among the records that were released this week. In both cases, the images show what are alleged to be question-and-answer sessions with unidentified participants.
In the fake image involving Hawking, the questioner asks, in reference to Epstein, “Did Jeffrey ever talk to you about Stephen Hawking’s proclivities?” The respondent answers, “Yes, he liked watching undressed midgets solve complex equations on a too-high-up chalkboard.” Additionally, the respondent replies “yes” when asked whether Hawking “frequented the island for pleasure.” The other image includes an exchange about Kimmel in which the respondent says they gave him multiple massages and had sex with him at the comedian’s suggestion.
Posts that shared the images had received tens of thousands of views on X, formerly Twitter, and other social media platforms as of Thursday.
Hawking is mentioned twice in the documents that were released. One reference involves a 2015 email from Epstein offering a monetary award to friends, family or acquaintances of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, if they could help disprove allegations that the physicist had participated in an “underage orgy” on one of Epstein’s islands. The other is a request for Giuffre to turn over all photos or videos of her with a number of individuals, including Hawking. But there is no reference to any “proclivities.”
In 2006, a few months before Epstein was charged with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor, Hawking was one of many scientists who attended a five-day conference in the Caribbean funded by Epstein. The physicist appears in multiple pictures from the event.
Kimmel does not come up in the documents at all. Ahead of their release, social media users wrongly claimed that his name might appear, spurred by a comment New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.” Kimmel said in response on X that he had never met Epstein and that Rodgers’ “reckless words put my family in danger.”
Moreover, the purported document snippet that mentions Kimmel states that it is part of page 1,375, but only 944 pages of records had been made public when the image began spreading.
Other major public figures social media users have falsely claimed are named in the documents include Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Elon Musk and many more.
There was much speculation before the release that the records amounted to a list of rich and powerful people who were Epstein’s “clients” or “co-conspirators.” But the records come from a 2015 lawsuit filed by Giuffre against Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, which was settled two years later.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, who ordered the release, said most of the names were already public. They include many of Epstein’s accusers, members of his staff who told their stories to tabloid newspapers, people who served as witnesses at Maxwell’s trial, people who were mentioned in passing during depositions but aren’t accused of anything salacious, and people who investigated Epstein, including prosecutors, a journalist and a police detective.
There are also boldface names of public figures known to have associated with Epstein over the years, but whose relationships with him have already been well documented elsewhere.
Previous documents from the case were released in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. About 60 of 250 records currently being released had been made public as of Thursday evening, with more expected in the coming days.
Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
veryGood! (947)
Related
- Will the 'Yellowstone' finale be the last episode? What we know about Season 6, spinoffs
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
- Juan Soto praise of Mets' future a tough sight for Yankees, but World Series goal remains
- Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
- How to watch the 'Blue Bloods' Season 14 finale: Final episode premiere date, cast
- Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
- Backstage at New York's Jingle Ball with Jimmy Fallon, 'Queer Eye' and Meghan Trainor
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- Appeals court scraps Nasdaq boardroom diversity rules in latest DEI setback
Ranking
- Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
- Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds
- 'Squid Game' without subtitles? Duolingo, Netflix encourage fans to learn Korean
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Tarte Shape Tape Concealer Sells Once Every 4 Seconds: Get 50% Off Before It's Gone
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
Recommendation
Who are the most valuable sports franchises? Forbes releases new list of top 50 teams
Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
Alex Murdaugh’s murder appeal cites biased clerk and prejudicial evidence
Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
Appeals court scraps Nasdaq boardroom diversity rules in latest DEI setback
Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
Trump suggestion that Egypt, Jordan absorb Palestinians from Gaza draws rejections, confusion
Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills