Files reference sexual assault allegation by Epstein victim against former Stanford academic Stephen Kosslyn Ph.D. ’74

Editor’s Note: The Stanford Daily’s team of reporters and editors is currently working to review Department of Justice documents released this weekend for connections between Stanford, Silicon Valley and Jeffrey Epstein. We welcome your confidential tips here or at eic@stanforddaily.com.

Content warning: This article contains references to sexual violence.

Files released by the Department of Justice Friday and reviewed by The Daily reference sexual assault allegations by a vocal accuser of Jeffrey Epstein against Stephen Kosslyn, Ph.D. ’74, a psychologist and the former Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford. 

2,145 mentions of Kosslyn appear in the Epstein files. Among them are documents referencing allegations that an underage victim of Epstein and his longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, was forced to have sex with Kosslyn. Other files indicate that Kosslyn visited Epstein in jail in 2008.

Kosslyn did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily.

In 2011, during Kosslyn’s tenure at Stanford, an email from British journalist Annette Witheridge on behalf of the Daily Mail sought comment from Ghislaine Maxwell regarding fourteen allegations.

The list of allegations included a claim that an unnamed victim “was required to have sex with friends of Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein, including… Stephen Kosslyn.”

The Daily, however, located another copy of the email that appears to leave the name unredacted, referring to a woman named “Virginia.”

Witheridge confirmed in an interview with The Daily that the email refers to Virginia Guiffre, a prominent victim of Epstein who was outspoken about her experience of trafficking. Guiffre died by suicide last year.

According to Witheridge, The Mail on Sunday, a British tabloid newspaper, asked her in March 2011 “to contact Ghislaine Maxwell for comment on Virginia’s allegations ahead of publication,” the first time Witheridge learned of Guiffre’s story.

The Mail on Sunday story that was published in 2011 included a photo of Guiffre and Prince Andrew. According to Witheridge, however, allegations of sexual encounters between Giuffre and Andrew were removed based on legal advice.

Investigative journalist “Sharon Churcher uncovered these allegations during interviews conducted in Australia and in Sydney with Guiffre,” according to Witheridge. Churcher did not respond to a request for comment.

The newly released files also include notes from a journalist’s off-the-record interview with Alan Dershowitz. The notes include an answer from Dershowitz that Guiffre included Kosslyn in her allegations.

A psychologist and neuroscientist, Kosslyn is widely regarded as a founder of the cognitive neuroscience field. After receiving his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford, Kosslyn joined Harvard’s faculty in 1977, eventually becoming Chair of the Psychology Department.

In 2011, Kosslyn returned to Stanford to direct CASBS.

Documents reveal a close relationship between Kosslyn and Epstein, indicating they often visited one another, met for meals and spoke over the phone. 

Kosslyn’s name previously appeared in the table of contents of Jeffrey Epstein’s “birthday book,” a scrapbook of messages, photos and tributes that Ghislaine Maxwell assembled to celebrate Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. Kosslyn’s handwritten message to Epstein included a series of equations and a wish to “stay healthy,” before signing off “prosthetically yours.”

After pleading guilty to soliciting underage sex in 2008, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months at the Palm Beach County Jail. 

Court documents include Kosslyn’s name under a list of “all people on inmate visitor log,” with his first name misspelled by one letter as “Stephan.”

The official visitor log of the Palm Beach County Jail, reviewed by The Daily, confirms that Kosslyn visited Epstein in jail more than once. Page 45 of the log includes Kosslyn’s name as a visitor twice, on Sept. 20 and 21, 2008. Kosslyn was then serving as Dean of Social Science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

On the day Epstein was released from jail after serving thirteen months of his sentence, he emailed Kosslyn, “home and free.”

“HI Jeffrey!!!!! THIS IS FABULOUS!” Kosslyn replied.

The next year, Epstein wrote to Kosslyn asking for the name of a New York child psychologist. The referral appeared to be for someone whom Epstein described as a fifteen-year-old girl with “ocd behavior.” Kosslyn responded with the requested information.

A few months later, Kosslyn informed Epstein, who was “the first to know,” that he “was just offered it.” Kosslyn took up his position at Stanford the following year. Relocating to San Francisco, Kosslyn invited Epstein to visit him, offering to find a time to “escape for a couple of hours” on the day he planned to move in.

Referencing CASBS’s first annual Behavioral Science Summit, Kosslyn invited Epstein onto Stanford’s campus in 2012, writing, “I hope you can join us!” 

Epstein visited Kosslyn on the West Coast that August. Kosslyn’s itinerary for the visit apparently included a “tour” of CASBS at Stanford, “lunch in the campus coffee house” and “walking around the main campus.”

The University did not respond to a request for comment on whether Stanford knew about Kosslyn’s relationship with Epstein before hiring him or during his tenure.

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