Leonardo DiCaprio, Stephen Hawking named in Jeffrey Epstein newly unsealed documents

Leonardo DiCaprio, David Copperfield and Stephen Hawking are among the celebrities linked to prolific sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in newly unsealed court documents.

The first 40 documents – of around 250 expected to eventually be unsealed – were publicly released on Wednesday, largely mentioning figures whose names were already known.

Stephen Hawking, Bill Clinton and Leonardo DiCaprio have also been named in explosive documents.

The documents are part of a 2015 US defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, the disgraced British socialite who supplied Epstein with underage girls.

Also named in the documents is Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, who agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre after she alleged she was forced to have sex with him three times when she was 17. The settlement is not an admission of guilt and Andrew continues to deny any wrongdoing.

There is also a deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, according to CNN, who in the document described Prince Andrew touching sensitive parts of her body in a joking manner while taking photos.

Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell said in a statement on Wednesday: “She has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence.”