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Kathy Ruemmler, Goldman Sachs’s general counsel, said she plans to resign after emails and correspondence reviewed by The Associated Press depict what the documents show as especially close ties between Ruemmler and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, years after Epstein’s 2008 sex-crimes conviction. Ruemmler, 54, announced Thursday that she would step down from the top legal post at the investment bank.
Ruemmler previously characterized her relationship with Epstein as professional, saying she regretted knowing him and calling him a “monster,” according to AP’s account of what she had said before. In the same reporting, AP said Ruemmler also repeatedly described the relationship as tied to her work as a private defense attorney before she ever joined Goldman Sachs.
AP reported that roughly 8,400 documents involved Ruemmler or referenced her in connection with Epstein. Those materials, AP said, include intimate email exchanges and social plans, along with gifts that went beyond what Ruemmler and Goldman had described as legal work.
The correspondence AP reviewed also includes exchanges in which Ruemmler appeared to be aware of the scope of allegations Epstein faced involving underage girls in Florida, the reporting said. AP added that some messages show Ruemmler advising Epstein on how he might try to repair his public image and defend himself against new misconduct claims.
AP said gifts Epstein gave to Ruemmler were previously reported, including spa treatments and items described as luxury handbags, an Apple Watch and a Fendi coat. AP reported, however, that the tone and content of some of the exchanges suggest the relationship was not simply a lawyer-client transaction as Ruemmler had previously attested.
One email referenced in AP’s report came from Epstein’s assistant in 2016, according to AP, and it said, “It makes him happy to see you happy,” after Epstein prepaid for a spa treatment for Ruemmler. In October 2018, AP said Epstein directed an assistant to send flowers and chicken soup to Ruemmler because she was “not been feeling well,” a pattern AP described as including additional small tokens when she was sick.
AP reported that the two also discussed dating issues, shared jokes, and traded laments about their careers and dating lives. AP said they messaged about mundane topics, repeatedly planned dinners or drinks in different places, and at one point Epstein even named Ruemmler as a backup executor of his will.
In AP’s account, some emails in later years reflected a casual rapport, including Ruemmler writing in 2015, “Well, I adore him. It’s like having another older brother!” AP also said Ruemmler received expensive gifts during her private-practice period after she left the White House in 2014, and that the gifts came after Epstein’s 2008 conviction and sex-offender registration.
Those exchanges later overlapped with Ruemmler’s time at Goldman. AP said she joined Goldman Sachs in 2020 and became the firm’s top lawyer in 2021, after serving in a range of roles in the Obama administration, including as White House Counsel, and after work as a federal prosecutor that included prosecuting executives in the Enron case, AP said. The AP story also described that Ruemmler had been involved in Epstein’s legal defense efforts after Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on sex-crimes allegations and after Epstein later died by suicide in a Manhattan jail.
AP reported that Goldman leadership publicly backed Ruemmler amid the revelations, but the emails also raised questions about her judgment. The reporting said Wall Street historically discourages gift-giving between clients and bankers or Wall Street lawyers, particularly expensive gifts that could raise potential conflict-of-interest concerns, and it said Goldman has a code of conduct requiring employees to obtain pre-approval before receiving gifts from or giving them to clients, partly to help avoid anti-bribery-law issues.
In her statement Thursday, Ruemmler said, “Since I joined Goldman Sachs six years ago, it has been my privilege to help oversee the firm’s legal, reputational, and regulatory matters; to enhance our strong risk management processes; and to ensure that we live by our core value of integrity in everything we do. My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’ interests first.” AP also reported that Goldman CEO David Solomon said he respected Ruemmler’s decision to resign and that the firm would wind down her work to ensure a smooth transition before her last day on June 30.