The highest lawyer at Goldman Sachs, Kathy Ruemmler, mentioned Thursday that she would go away the celebrated Wall Road agency amid controversy over her e-mail correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, which the Justice Division disclosed in latest weeks.
In an interview with The Monetary Instances, Ruemmler mentioned: “I made the dedication that the media consideration on me, regarding my prior work as a defence lawyer, was turning into a distraction.”
Serving as an in depth adviser to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Ruemmler has drawn intense scrutiny for weeks because the Justice Division dumped tens of millions of pages of recordsdata associated to Epstein, the convicted intercourse trafficker.
“All through her tenure, Kathy has been a unprecedented normal counsel, and we’re grateful for her contributions and sound recommendation on a variety of consequential authorized issues for the agency,” Solomon mentioned in a press release. “As one of the completed professionals in her discipline, Kathy has additionally been a mentor and pal to a lot of our individuals, and she or he will likely be missed. I accepted her resignation, and I respect her resolution.”
Ruemmler was White Home counsel within the Obama administration.
Within the emails, Ruemmler exchanged dozens of pleasant notes with Epstein for years, together with after he was convicted.
In 2015, Epstein requested authorized recommendation in a single e-mail change.
“Properly, I am keen on him. It is like having one other older brother!” Ruemmler wrote of Epstein in one other e-mail.
“Verify for Hermes bag for Kathy!” Epstein’s longtime assistant wrote in one other e-mail in 2016, referring to Ruemmler. Different emails present Ruemmler calling Epstein “sweetie” and thanking “Uncle Jeffrey.”
Ruemmler was additionally, at one level, listed as a backup executor on Epstein’s will, though she by no means served any executor function. Her identify was eliminated earlier than Epstein died. She has maintained that she was pleasant with Epstein solely within the context of being a prison protection lawyer and has mentioned she regrets ever having identified him.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for Ruemmler informed The Wall Road Journal: “These paperwork are in step with what Ms. Ruemmler has repeatedly mentioned: She knew Epstein when she was a prison protection lawyer and shared a shopper with him.”
The Journal additionally reported final week that after Epstein was arrested in 2019, one of many first individuals he referred to as was Ruemmler.
Regardless of the scrutiny, Goldman Sachs and Solomon stood by Ruemmler. Goldman has mentioned she disclosed her previous dealings with Epstein when she was employed in 2020.
Ruemmler is the newest in a wave of high-profile individuals leaving key enterprise and authorities roles due to the Epstein recordsdata.
On Feb. 4, Brad Karp, the chairman of the legislation agency Paul Weiss, stepped again from that place. He, too, had exchanged many emails with Epstein over a number of years.
On Sunday, Morgan McSweeney, chief of employees to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, resigned due to the fallout from his having beneficial that Starmer appoint Peter Mandelson because the U.Ok. ambassador to the US. Mandelson seems repeatedly within the Epstein recordsdata.
Mandelson himself was fired because the U.Ok. envoy to the U.S. in September over Epstein-related revelations.
