Former Obama White House counsel to face House questioning over Epstein ties | Obama administration
Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel under Barack Obama, will testify before the House oversight and reform committee on Wednesday about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein as part of the panel’s investigation into the convicted sex offender.
Ruemmler came under scrutiny after his name surfaced earlier this year thousands of times The Epstein Files are in records related to Epstein released by the justice department under the Transparency Act. In February, he announced that he would resign from his position as chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs, effective June 30.
Emails The exchange between Ruemmler and Epstein, which took place between 2014 and 2019 and occurred years after Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in the state of Florida, including procuring a minor, Ruemmler accepted luxury gifts from epsteinHe addressed him as follows: “Uncle Jeffrey” And “Sweetie”, gave him advice about how to do it to respond questions about and a document showed that she was at one point listed as the backup executor of his will. Wall Street Magazine.
In a 2015 email, Ruemmler wrote To Epstein: “Friendships go both ways; it’s important to me to give you some peace of mind about all this legal nonsense.”
In an interview for a guest article New York Times opinion section In June, Ruemmler said he first contacted Epstein after he left the White House in 2014, and that Epstein contacted him about the potential of working with Bill Gates.
“What I didn’t appreciate at the time and deeply regret now,” Ruemmler said. in question“Epstein used me and many others to legitimize his position.”
“If I had seen or heard anything to suggest that Epstein was harming women or girls, I would have taken action to stop it,” he added.
Wednesday’s meeting will be held behind closed doors and the committee is expected to release the minutes at a later date, as it has with previous testimonies.
A spokesman for Ruemmler said in a statement before his testimony to the Guardian this week that Ruemmler “welcomed the opportunity to appear before the Committee”.
“At the time she interacted with Jeffrey Epstein, she was working as a criminal defense attorney and sharing a client with him,” the spokesperson said. “He did nothing wrong and had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity.”
Although he announced in February that he was resigning from his position as Goldman Sachs’ chief legal officer. Financial Times, Bloomberg And others In June, Ruemmler reportedly agreed to continue in an advisory role at Goldman Sachs after CEO David Solomon asked him to remain at the bank as an advisor.
Goldman’s verdict was: It was criticized by some MPs. including two Democratic lawmakers, senator Elizabeth Warren and representative Raja Krishnamoorthi. sent a letter In June, he filed a request with Solomon about the decision and asked the bank to answer a series of questions, including what Ruemmler had disclosed about his relationship with Epstein before joining the firm.
Documents released by the Justice Department “show that Ruemmler maintained a much more extensive relationship with Epstein than he had previously publicly acknowledged,” the lawmakers said in their letter.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
