The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) computer scientist who said the alleged victims of an associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were “entirely willing” has resigned.
Richard Stallman, a famed open-source advocate, announced his departure in an email published online Monday.
“I am resigning effective immediately from my position in CSAIL at MIT,” he wrote. “I am doing this due to pressure on MIT and me over a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations.”
Stallman had argued in a leaked email thread from last week that Marvin Minsky – an artificial intelligence pioneer who died in 2016 and was accused of assaulting one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre – had not actually assaulted anyone.
He also argued over the definition of “sexual assault” and “rape” and whether the term applied to Minsky and Giuffre.
“The word ‘assaulting’ presumes that he applied force or violence, in some unspecified way, but the article itself says no such thing. Only that they had sex,” he wrote, referring to an article about Giuffre’s testimony against Minsky. “The most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing.” – READ MORE