The top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, Kathy Ruemmler, said Thursday that she would leave the prestigious Wall Street firm amid controversy over her email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, which the Justice Department disclosed in recent weeks.
In an interview with The Financial Times, Ruemmler said: “I made the determination that the media attention on me, relating to my prior work as a defence attorney, was becoming a distraction.”
Serving as a close adviser to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Ruemmler has drawn intense scrutiny for weeks as the Justice Department dumped millions of pages of files related to Epstein, the convicted sex trafficker.
“Throughout her tenure, Kathy has been an extraordinary general counsel, and we are grateful for her contributions and sound advice on a wide range of consequential legal matters for the firm,” Solomon said in a statement. “As one of the most accomplished professionals in her field, Kathy has also been a mentor and friend to many of our people, and she will be missed. I accepted her resignation, and I respect her decision.”
Ruemmler was White House counsel in the Obama administration.
In the emails, Ruemmler exchanged dozens of friendly notes with Epstein for years, including after he was convicted.
In 2015, Epstein requested legal advice in one email exchange.
“Well, I adore him. It’s like having another older brother!” Ruemmler wrote of Epstein in another email.
“Confirm for Hermes bag for Kathy!” Epstein’s longtime assistant wrote in another email in 2016, referring to Ruemmler. Other emails show Ruemmler calling Epstein “sweetie” and thanking “Uncle Jeffrey.”
Ruemmler was also, at one point, listed as a backup executor on Epstein’s will, although she never served any executor role. Her name was removed before Epstein died. She has maintained that she was friendly with Epstein only in the context of being a criminal defense attorney and has said she regrets ever having known him.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for Ruemmler told The Wall Street Journal: “These documents are consistent with what Ms. Ruemmler has repeatedly said: She knew Epstein when she was a criminal defense attorney and shared a client with him.”
The Journal also reported last week that after Epstein was arrested in 2019, one of the first people he called was Ruemmler.
Despite the scrutiny, Goldman Sachs and Solomon stood by Ruemmler. Goldman has said she disclosed her past dealings with Epstein when she was hired in 2020.
Ruemmler is the latest in a wave of high-profile people leaving key business and government roles because of the Epstein files.
On Feb. 4, Brad Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul Weiss, stepped back from that position. He, too, had exchanged many emails with Epstein over multiple years.
On Sunday, Morgan McSweeney, chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, resigned because of the fallout from his having recommended that Starmer appoint Peter Mandelson as the U.K. ambassador to the United States. Mandelson appears repeatedly in the Epstein files.
Mandelson himself was fired as the U.K. envoy to the U.S. in September over Epstein-related revelations.
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