Goldman Sachs backs Kathy Ruemmler

Goldman Sachs He strongly backed his top lawyer on Thursday, Kathy Ruemmlera day after a congressional committee released emails dating notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before he joined the investment bank.

Those emails say Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel to former President Barack Obama, and Epstein exchanged opinions about President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and overweight highway rest stop customers.

“See you at 2pm, I ordered sushi for you,” she wrote as part of an email thread that began with Epstein emailing Ruemmler in March 2018. Daily Monster “How close is Donald Trump to a psychiatric breakdown?” article titled

Those emails came about 17 months before Epstein was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges. He killed himself weeks after his arrest in a Manhattan jail.

Ruemmler is Goldman’s chief legal officer and general counsel.

“These emails were private communications long before Kathy Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs,” Goldman Sachs spokesman Tony Fratto told CNBC.

“Kathy is an outstanding general counsel, and we benefit from her judgment every day,” Fratto said.

Ruemmler did not respond to requests for comment Thursday about her emails with Epstein.

Ruemmler said in 2023: Wall StreetJournal“I regret knowing Jeffrey Epstein.”

Ruemmler, who served as Obama’s White House general counsel and federal prosecutor, exchanged emails with Epstein while he was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins, where he was global head of the white-collar defense and investigative practice.

The Journal in 2023 reported that Ruemmler “had dozens of meetings with Epstein over the years.” After White House service and before becoming one of the best lawyers Goldman Sachs... In 2020.”

“He also planned to take part in a trip to Paris in 2015 and a visit to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean in 2017,” the Journal reported. Citing a Goldman Sachs spokesman, the newspaper reported that Epstein introduced him to potential legal clients, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Goldman has previously said Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Epstein related to his role at Latham, but Latham also said he was not a client of the firm.

Her letters to Epstein, released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, were altered years after he pleaded guilty in Florida state court to prostitution charges against an underage girl in 2008.

Epstein spent 13 months in prison in this case and had to register as a sex offender.

“Trump is living proof of the adage that it is better to be lucky than to be smart,” Ruemmler wrote to Epstein on Aug. 26, 2015, according to a series of emails from Epstein’s estate that House Oversight obtained pursuant to a subpoena.

Earlier, Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump, said, “I’ll give you the details when I see you. When are you in New York?”

Ruemmler responded by saying he was leaving for New York in two days and was considering driving there.

“I will stop to pee and get gas at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, where I will observe all the people who are at least 100 pounds overweight, have a mild panic attack as a result of the observation, and then decide that I will never eat another bite for the rest of my life out of fear that I will end up like one of these people,” Ruemmler wrote.

Months later, in January 2016, Epstein emailed Ruemmler and said: “I stopped talking to him [Bill] When Clinton wholeheartedly swore to me that he had done something. , he also forgot that he had sworn the exact opposite to me just a few weeks ago.”

On July 14, 2016, Epstein writes to Ruemmler: “beautiful black dress. you and Ruth Ginsburg.”

Ruemmler responded less than 20 minutes later: “I like this dress… narciso Rodriguez. Where did you see this picture? RBG [the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg] “It was my date for dinner.”

Epstein said the photo was “all over the news channels today” because Ginsburg apologized for comments she made to The Times about Trump, saying “I can’t imagine what the country would be like if Donald Trump was our president” and that her late husband said “it’s time for us to move to New Zealand.”

“Yes,” Ruemmler wrote.

The next day, Epstein wrote Ruemmler a single word: “today.”

“That’s a broad question,” he replied, to which she responded by saying, “I don’t use terms like ‘broad’ anymore,” followed by a “frown” emoji.

A year later, when Ginsburg’s fears were realized and Trump was elected president, Ruemmler wrote on July 20, 2017: “Trump is really stupid.”

“Oh,” Epstein replied the next day.

Earlier that year, Ruemmler said in an email to Epstein that Trump was “so disgusting.”

“It’s worse in real life and up close,” Epstein replied.

In August 2018, Ruemmler emailed Epstein a link to a New York Times op-ed that said a lawsuit would be filed to impeach Trump in connection with secret payments by others to two women to keep quiet about alleged sexual trysts with him before the 2016 election. Trump denies having sex with women: porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

These payments were made and facilitated by Trump’s then-personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, who agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in their investigation of Trump.

“You see, I know how dirty Donald is,” Epstein wrote in that thread. “My guess is that people who are not lawyers and are in the business world have no idea what it means for the mechanic to flip.”

In a thread earlier that year, Epstein appeared to forward a message from Trump’s former White House adviser Steve Bannon: “Do you think Bill Clinton would like to join you, buddy, and Steve? Could be very funny, off the record.”

Ruemmler replied: “Even if he wants, his lawyer can advise him on this. :-).”

In the same thread, Ruemmler wrote “Barf” after an unnamed woman told Epstein that a man named Ben was “giving her a very hard time” by asking her to “do wifey things.”

In June 2018, Epstein mentioned Facebook and its founder, Zuckerberg, in an email to Ruemmler.

“I thought you might want to look at the latest internet and privacy opinions and ask some open questions for discussion,” Epstein wrote. “Mark wants to bring the internet to the rest of the world… and healthcare… his wife is nice but boring.. what do you see as challenges.. what does he see as social.”

— CNBC’s Ashlee Trujillo, Caleigh Keating and MC Wellons contributed to this story