Former Stanford professor Stephen Kosslyn Ph.D. ’74 denies sexual assault claim

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Content warning: This article contains references to sexual violence.

Former Stanford psychology professor Stephen Kosslyn Ph.D. ’74 denied assaulting or having sex with Virginia Giuffre, a prominent victim of convicted sex trafficker and Kosslyn’s associate Jeffrey Epstein, in a Monday statement to The Daily.

“The recent story about me in The Stanford Daily is raising doubts about my personal and professional integrity,” he wrote.

The Daily previously reported on details from Giuffre’s unpublished manuscript, in which she detailed an account of sexual assault by “Stephen Kosslyn.” Giuffre died of suicide in 2025. 

The article also outlined legal documents that Kosslyn pointed to in his Monday statement. One court order ruled the mention of Kosslyn in Giuffre’s manuscript to be an error.  The Daily also included a copy of sworn testimony during which Giuffre answered “no” when asked whether she had sex with Kosslyn.

The Daily previously found documents indicating that Kosslyn visited Epstein multiple times during his 2008 jail sentence for soliciting sex from a minor. Correspondence between the two men suggest a close relationship.

In his statement, Kosslyn wrote that The Daily’s reporting “may leave readers with the impression that there is a legitimate dispute about whether I had sex with Ms. Virginia Guiffre.” 

“There is no such dispute,” he added. “I did not.”

Kosslyn again referenced the federal court order that redacted his name from Giuffre’s unpublished manuscript, writing, “the court ruled that the reference to my name in a draft manuscript was a ‘scrivener’s error’; my name was redacted.”

A ‘scrivener’s error’ is a legal term referring to an unintentional typographical error. Both parties, including Giuffre’s lawyers and the legal team of Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, agreed to redact Kosslyn’s name from Giuffre’s manuscript, citing “privacy interests.” 

Kosslyn and his lawyer, Christopher Serbagi, have not responded to multiple requests for additional documents relating to the court’s order. Giuffre’s lawyer has also not responded to a request for comment.

The statement from Kosslyn criticized The Daily’s reporting for potentially “leaving readers with the false impression that my involvement remains an open question.” The Daily’s published article outlines the details of the deposition and court ruling alongside the manuscript.

Giuffre’s unpublished manuscript included a reference to Kosslyn by his full name, describing him as a “Harvard professor” and a “quirky little man with white hair and a mad scientist look about him.” In that same account, Guiffre wrote that following a massage, she “quickly got through having intercourse with him.”

Kosslyn did not clarify to The Daily whether he believes that Giuffre’s original account of the encounter, in which she used his name, was an instance of confusion or misremembering by Giuffre.

In his statement, Kosslyn also noted that his name “does not appear in the published book,” referring to Giuffre’s 2025 memoir Nobody’s Girl. 

On page 135 of the memoir, Giuffre wrote an account similar to the one in her unpublished manuscript, referring to the man she was required to have sex with as a “quirky little man with a balding pate of white hair” and a “psychology professor whose research Epstein was helping to fund.”

Between 1998 and 2002, Epstein contributed $200,000 to Kosslyn’s research at Harvard University, where he was a psychology professor.

Giuffre said before her death that she chose not to name some individuals associated with Epstein our of fear of retaliatory litigation.

Maintaining that he was unaware of Epstein’s abuse, Kosslyn wrote, “had I known then what I later learned, I would have had nothing to do with him.”

A Department of Corrections record indicates that Kosslyn visited Epstein multiple times in 2008 while Epstein was at Palm Beach County Jail serving time for soliciting underage sex. Kosslyn emailed Epstein on the day he was released from jail on July 22, 2009, writing, “HI Jeffrey!!!!! THIS IS FABULOUS!…I’ll give you a quick call at some point just to check in…”

Kosslyn and Serbagi did not respond to a request for comment on Kosslyn’s 2008 visits to Palm Beach County Jail and correspondence between Epstein and Kosslyn that followed Epstein’s release in 2009.

Kosslyn wrote, “I understand the importance of scrutinizing Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to academia, and I strongly support thorough, accurate, and independent reporting on this issue.” 

“I do not question Ms. Giuffre’s broader account of Epstein’s abuse; my purpose in writing this letter is solely to clarify the facts of my own case and to extend my deepest sympathy to his victims,” he wrote.

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