Top lawyer at Goldman Sachs resigns after revelation of Epstein relationship | Jeffrey Epstein

Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer, Kathy Ruemmler, has announced her resignation after emails in the latest tranche of Epstein files revealed she had a close relationship with the convicted child sex offender , who she called “Uncle Jeffrey”.

Ruemmler said on Thursday she would step down as the bank’s chieflegal officer and general counsel at the end of June.

“I made the determination that the media attention on me, relating to my prior work as a defence attorney, was becoming a distraction,” she told the Financial Times, which first reported her departure.

Her resignation marks a U-turn for the bank’s top lawyer, having initially insisted she would not resign from the job she has held since 2020.

Ruemmler called Epstein a “monster” in recent statements, with a Goldman Sachs spokesperson previously stressing that she “regrets ever knowing him”.

But Ruemmler, a former White House counsel to Barack Obama, struggled to distance herself from the emails and other correspondence, which drew media attention after the US Department of Justice’s latest release of the Epstein files.

The emails revealed she had a much different relationship with the once-well connected financier before he was arrested a second time for sex crimes in 2019. Ruemmler had a large number of communications with Epstein from 2014 to 2019, even after the disgraced financier’s 2008 guilty plea for procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution, the documents showed.

These communications included advising Epstein on how to respond to a media inquiry in 2019 concerning the alleged special legal treatment he received because of his connections, the emails show. The correspondence also showed Ruemmler received expensive gifts from Epstein, and repeatedly called him “Uncle Jeffrey”.

“I was a defence attorney when I dealt with Jeffrey Epstein,” Ruemmler had told Reuters on 3 February.

Epstein later died in prison while awaiting child sex trafficking charges in August 2019.

During her time in private practice after she left the White House in 2014, Ruemmler received several gifts from Epstein, including luxury handbags and a fur coat.

“So lovely and thoughtful! Thank you to Uncle Jeffrey!!!” she wrote to him in 2018.

Historically, Wall Street frowns on gift-giving between clients and bankers or Wall Street lawyers, particularly high-end gifts that could pose a conflict of interest.

Goldman Sachs requires its employees to get pre-approval before receiving gifts from clients or giving them, according to the company’s code of conduct, partly in order to not run afoul of anti-bribery laws.

Epstein also telephoned Ruemmler when he was arrested on 6 July 2019, among other calls he made that night, according to two documents that cited notes from law enforcement officials.

A separate note by the FBI cited Epstein as saying on the same day: “Is this about sex trafficking. Is this about underage.” The author of the FBI document, who was not named, said Epstein also made utterances including: “Oh this is bad, this is pretty bad.”

Ruemmler was part of the leadership at Goldman, among the top executive officers of the Wall Street firm. As late as December, its chief executive, David Solomon, described Ruemmler as an “excellent lawyer” and said she had his full faith and backing.

On Thursday, Solomon said: “As one of the most accomplished professionals in her field, Kathy has also been a mentor and friend to many of our people, and she will be missed. I accepted her resignation, and I respect her decision.”

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting