Fact-check: Are Stephen Hawking and Jimmy Kimmel on Epstein's list?

A US federal judge has been unsealing court records featuring the names of dozens of people connected to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein since last Wednesday. 

But these documents ended up containing no major new revelations about Epstein and his associates.

The fact that names are mentioned doesn’t mean there's a link to the criminal activities of the disgraced financier and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years for conspiring to sexually abuse minors.

The people mentioned in the court filings include some of Epstein’s accusers, witnesses, people who were mentioned in passing during depositions but weren’t accused of anything wrongdoing, as well as individuals who investigated Epstein.

Nonetheless, this much-anticipated development prompted a wave of disinformation including many false allegations trying to tie certain high-profile figures to the couple. 

One of the famous individuals falsely accused is the late theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking.

An alleged screenshot published on X, former Twitter, claims to show court documents mentioning Hawking’s sexual 'proclivities'.

Turns out the viral image is fabricated because this exchange does not appear anywhere in the Epstein documents recently released. 

Even the account that first posted the fabricated screenshot later confirmed the exchange was a fake one.

"I thought it was outlandish enough to be obvious, commented the user under the viral post.

Hawking’s name does appear in the documents released on 3 January. A 2015 email sent by Epstein outlines a reward he offered for people who could disprove an allegation from one of his victims Virginia Giuffre that the scientist took part in “an underage orgy.” 

Another document describes a request