Epstein accuser’s family blasts former Obama White House lawyer who said her assertions ‘lacked inherent credibility’

Obama’s former White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler told a House panel that she believes accounts of abuse by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent victims, “inherently lack credibility”; That prompted a harsh rebuke from Giuffre’s family, who accused the lawyer of trying to downplay her own ties to Epstein.

Ruemmler’s statement to the House Oversight Committee was made public Wednesday when the panel released the transcript of its closed-door meeting with Ruemmler about his ties to Epstein. Ruemmler, who most recently worked in a senior legal position at Goldman Sachs, said: now regrets interacting with late sex offender and I believed it was a mistake.

But when asked specifically whether she believed Giuffre, one of the leading accusers of Epstein. died by suicideHe was a victim of Epstein and Maxwell, Ruemmler replied, “I don’t know.”

He explained: “If he says it is, I have no reason to doubt it. However, based on my experience as a former prosecutor and a defense attorney, there were allegations that I believed were of such a nature that they inherently lacked credibility.”

Responding to the statement, Sky and Giuffre’s sister and sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, said in a statement to CNN: “The only person who lacks credibility is Kathy Ruemmler, who is trying to make people believe that she did not know that Jeffrey Epstein was actively involved in sex trafficking.”

“Attempting to cast doubt on Virginia, whose bravery has led so many survivors to come forward and forced more than 50 people to resign their positions of power, is reprehensible,” the statement said. “He should be ashamed of himself.”

Ruemmler’s public relations representative, Jami Schlicher, disputed Ruemmler’s “general denial of Virginia Giuffre’s allegations” in an email before Giuffre’s family members made the statement.

“This is definitely not what happened,” Schlicher wrote in an email. “Ms. Ruemmler was responding to a specific discussion about specific allegations. She was expressing skepticism about certain unsubstantiated allegations, not every claim that Ms. Giuffre has ever made.”

Ruemmler’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Connelly, said in a statement to CNN: “As Ms. Ruemmler told the committee, she had no knowledge of Epstein’s ongoing criminal activity and not a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise. Ms. Ruemmler would never ignore any criminal activity, and if she had seen or heard anything that suggested Epstein was harming women or girls, she would have taken action to stop it.”

In 2019, Giuffre publicly alleged that Epstein kidnapped her and forced her to have sex with his friends, including Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, when she was 17. The former prince has repeatedly denied the allegations.

“Usually when someone says ‘I sex-trafficked someone,’ they’re saying who, when, where, not multiple world leaders, but multiple foreign presidents,” Ruemmler said. He added that since he wasn’t investigating the case, he would ask the lead investigator what evidence they uncovered or whether they interviewed Giuffre.

rummler He announced that he would resign in February He served as Goldman Sachs’ chief legal officer after stories detailing his ties to Epstein were published. CNN’s KFile. He was supposed to leave the company at the end of June, but Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon asked him to stay He served as an advisor until his successor was elected. Goldman Sachs declined to comment to CNN.

Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law said in a statement: “Kathy Ruemmler enriched herself while girls and young women were suffering and having their lives ruined because she gave her abusers an opportunity.”

Investigators also asked Ruemmler about a September 2015 email. wrote“I would like to consider whether there are any counterclaims that could be made against VR,” VR said, referring to Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

At the time, Giuffre sued Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation after she said the abuse allegations against Maxwell and Epstein were “blatant lies.”

Asked if he wanted to file any counterclaims against Giuffre, Ruemmler said he didn’t remember the email but that “in a general way, she was trying to show me that I was being sensitive in some way.” [Epstein’s ] I’m asking for my opinions. And again, that was a common way for me to respond to him.”

“I had no direct involvement in any of this,” Ruemmler added.

Ruemmler reveals emails with Epstein

Committee investigators generally sought to pressure Ruemmler about his relationship with Epstein, presenting him with various emails, many of which were made public by the Justice Department, and asking him for clarification.

In a February 2016 email chain, Epstein asked, “Are we all ready for a day of joy?” he asked. The transcript shows Ruemmler responding with “best massage ever, but not your kind of massage.”

Ruemmler was asked to explain what she meant, given that some of Epstein’s victims were initially hired to provide massage services.

Ruemmler said that Epstein gifted him a visit to the spa at the Peninsula Hotel in New York City and that his email was intended as a joke about Epstein’s previous conviction.

“So what I did here was a thoughtless joke that certainly wasn’t in extraordinarily bad taste as we sit here in 2026, but it was a joke about his prior criminal history,” Ruemmler said, according to the transcript.

Committee investigators also presented Ruemmler with a September 2014 email in which Epstein wrote, “girls? Be careful, I’m about to renew an old habit.”

Ruemmler said this exchange likely referred to a face-to-face meeting in which he told her not to refer to women as girls.

Ruemmler was also presented with an email exchange with Epstein in June 2016 in which they discussed a possible hedge fund business opportunity. After the CEO of Epstein’s hedge fund said he would “only be interested in one woman,” Ruemmler responded: “Oh, God, so you’re going to trade one of your Russians to get my computer?”

Ruemmler said he knew some of Epstein’s employees were Russian and Eastern European, but he did not see anyone under the age of 18. Ruemmler argued that he made the comment to “change direction” because, according to him, Epstein was trying to include him in a potential job interview even though he had never received an offer and had not asked for his help.

Ruemmler told the committee: “I regret emailing him. And it’s a joke that certainly wasn’t well received today.”

“Darling, I am not one of your young people,” Ruemmler wrote to Epstein in March 2015. He told the committee he was “grumpy” after a long day of travel to China.

“Remember, he had a girlfriend who was probably 15 years younger than I was at the time,” Ruemmler said, adding: “He also had several women in his crew, in their late 20s and early 30s, who traveled with him. So I simply say this: Don’t – once again, don’t slander me. I’m bad-tempered.”

Works at Goldman Sachs

While public questions swirled about his employment situation, Ruemmler did not recommend that his successor at Goldman Sachs not have ties to Epstein.

“I guess that’s not a question for me,” he said. “In the American legal system, we hold people accountable for their actions. We don’t hold people accountable for their associations.”

“In my view, it is very, very bad policy to start blaming people for their abuses simply by association,” he said, adding that it would be “a very dangerous path.”

Ruemmler said he disclosed his relationship with Epstein to the bank before joining in 2020.

“I told him that I knew Epstein, that I had communicated with Epstein, that I had met with Epstein, that he was not my client, but that he was my client’s primary advisor, and that even though he was not my client, he certainly asked for my opinion from time to time,” he said.

Professional interactions of Epstein and Ruemmler

Ruemmler said he knew Epstein professionally as an attorney because the two shared a common client (a bank) and that his interactions with Epstein were as an attorney.

Ruemmler said he never represented Epstein as his attorney or received compensation from him, and was one of many people in Epstein’s professional and social circles he asked for advice.

“He asked my opinions from time to time, I think he asked others as well, and I tried to be sensitive and offer my opinions. But again, he wasn’t my client. I didn’t work for him. He wasn’t paying me. It wasn’t my responsibility. It was someone else’s responsibility,” Ruemmler said.

This developing story has been updated.

For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at: CNN.com