Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at storied investment bank Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, has resigned, after emails between her and Jeffrey Epstein showed a close relationship where she described him as an "older brother" and downplayed his sex crimes.
Up until her resignation on Thursday, Ruemmler repeatedly tried to distance herself from the emails and other correspondence and had been defiant that she would not resign from Goldman's top legal post, which she had held since 2020.
While Ruemmler has called Epstein a "monster" in recent statements, she had a much different relationship with Epstein before he was arrested a second time for sex crimes in 2019 and later killed himself in a Manhattan jail. Ruemmler called Epstein "Uncle Jeffrey" in emails and said she adored him.
In a statement before her resignation, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said Ruemmler "regrets ever knowing him".
During her time in private practice after she left the White House in 2014, Ruemmler received several expensive gifts from Epstein, including luxury handbags and a fur coat. The gifts were given after Epstein had already been convicted of sex crimes in 2008 and was registered as a sex offender.
"So lovely and thoughtful! Thank you to Uncle Jeffrey!!!" Ruemmler wrote to Epstein in 2018.
Epstein also called Ruemmler's cell phone, when he was arrested on July 6, 2019, among other calls he made that night, according to two documents that cited notes from law enforcement officials.
A separate note by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, cited Epstein as saying on the same day: "Is this about sex trafficking. Is this about underage."
The author of the FBI document, who was not named, said Epstein also made utterances including: "Oh this is bad, this is pretty bad."
Historically, Wall Street frowns on gift-giving between clients and bankers or Wall Street lawyers, particularly high-end gifts that could pose a conflict of interest. Goldman Sachs requires its employees to get pre-approval before receiving or giving gifts from clients, according to the company's code of conduct, partly in order to not run afoul of anti-bribery laws.
As late as December, Goldman CEO David Solomon described Ruemmler as an "excellent lawyer" and said she had his full faith and backing.
A large number of communications
Ruemmler had a large number of communications with Epstein from 2014 to 2019, even after the disgraced financier's 2008 guilty plea for procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution, the documents showed.
These communications included advising Epstein on how to respond to a media inquiry in 2019 concerning the alleged special legal treatment he received because of his connections, the emails show.
"I was a defense attorney when I dealt with Jeffrey Epstein," Ruemmler said in a statement to Reuters on February 3. "I got to know him as a lawyer and that was the foundation of my relationship with him.
"I had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal conduct on his part and I did not know him as the monster he has been revealed to be," she continued. "These decade-old private emails you are selectively referencing and pruriently reporting on have nothing to do with my work at Goldman Sachs."
The newly released documents provided more details about Epstein's ties to prominent people in politics, finance and academia, both before and after his 2008 guilty plea.
In 2018, a third party, whose name was redacted by the government, emailed Ruemmler to say that Epstein wanted to buy a band for her Apple Watch.
"I love the Hermes one!" she responded. "If truly okay with him to do the Hermes, I would love the 40 mm, stainless Hermes with bleu indigo swift leather double tour."
In 2019, she thanked Epstein for more gifts.
"Am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today! Jeffrey boots, handbag, and watch!" Ruemmler wrote.