It’s not like Hawking and Epstein traded a few emails talking about science, or had a one off meeting. It appears they had a fair amount of exchanges over a long period of time.

Epstein was a vile human in the worst kind of way and I see no evidence that Hawking was blind to this fact. Half the people on this app wouldn’t willingly associate with someone of a different political party than them, but to defend a man who willingly spent time with a convicted sex trafficker? The fact that Hawking was paralyzed doesn’t absolve him from willingly enabling (and potentially partaking in) child abuse and sex trafficking.