Former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler stated she regrets interacting with the late convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and believes now it was a mistake, in response to opening remarks she delivered to House committee investigators as a part of a closed-door interview.
“If I knew then what I know now about who Epstein really was, I never would have accepted an initial meeting with him. It was a mistake to deal with him, and I regret it,” Ruemmler stated, in response to ready remarks supplied to NCS. “But many people assume that given everything we know now about Epstein, everyone who dealt with him before his 2019 indictment must have known everything then. In my case, that assumption is completely wrong.”
Ruemmler was known as to testify voluntarily by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee for a closed-door interview as a part of the congressional probe into Epstein after quite a few information tales scrutinized her ties to the disgraced financier. Reporting from NCS’s KFILE detailed the extent of her relationship with Epstein, together with that she was amongst a small group of advisers to assist him push back authorized and reputational danger in the course of the ultimate years of his life.
Ruemmler didn’t particularly handle how she sought to assist Epstein defend his status in her opening remarks however did say, “even though I wasn’t his lawyer, he sought my advice from time to time, as many people do. I was friendly with him in that context, and I dealt with him in my ordinary course — casually, informally, and sometimes irreverently.” She additionally stated that Epstein was by no means her consumer.
She stated that she first met Epstein in 2014 — and defined how she got here to find out about how Epstein pled responsible in 2008 to costs that included the solicitation of a minor for prostitution together with different offenses and why she continued to interact with him.
“Epstein told me that, while a small number of the women he had solicited for prostitution turned out to be under the age of consent, he had not known that any of them were underage. Epstein appeared to be quite open about the conduct leading to his conviction, or so he led me to believe. He expressed remorse, embarrassment, and regret for his conduct, which he described as paying money for sex to women he believed to be over the age of 18,” Ruemmler stated in her opening assertion.
“Notwithstanding his conviction, by the time I met him, he had active relationships with an extensive group of respected professionals in business, academia, politics, and the arts. And given the nature of my law practice, I routinely dealt with compromised or controversial people, including those facing criminal or other allegations of wrongdoing,” she stated, whereas including that she “at no time” endorsed or excused the conduct to which Epstein pled responsible.
She known as Epstein a “masterful liar” — and likewise stated that she “did not see any evidence of ongoing criminal conduct or misconduct of any kind by Epstein.”
She stated that, “if I had seen or heard any evidence suggesting that he was abusing women or girls, I would have immediately reported him to law enforcement.”
Ahead of the interview, Ruemmler advised NCS, “I will answer any questions that they think will help their inquiry. So, again, I’m looking forward to meeting with the committee members today.”
House Oversight Chair James Comer stated previous to the beginning of the interview, “she’s a very powerful person that was probably more involved in working with him to rehabilitate his image, which I would argue has made it more difficult for him to be held accountable. So, very concerning. We want to know what she knew and we have a lot of questions about the extent of their relationship.”
The high Democrat on the panel, Rep. Robert Garcia, echoed, “the fact that she continued to engage, give advice, was clearly a friend, and in fact was one of the folks that he was talking to consistently in the last phase of his life I think is really significant. We’ve said from day one that we don’t care if someone is a Republican or a Democrat or what the relationship is, we want truth and answers, and I think that’s what we’ll get throughout the day today.”
In February, Ruemmler announced she would resign by June 30 from her job as chief authorized officer at Goldman Sachs amid fallout from the Justice Department’s launch of Epstein paperwork.
But Democrats have pressed Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon over his reported effort to retain the financial institution’s high lawyer months after she introduced she would resign.
The Justice Department’s launch of tens of millions of pages of Epstein paperwork supplied recent particulars in regards to the relationship between the Ruemmler and Epstein.
Amid the tons of of e-mail exchanges reviewed by NCS that debate Epstein’s authorized battles and reputational issues, there are different extra private communications between the 2, together with plans for a proposed journey to Epstein’s island and presents he’d given her.
In a few of their back-and-forth messages, Ruemmler mentioned private issues in her life, expressed gratitude for his or her “friendship,” and concluded her messages with “xo” and “xoxo.”
“There has been much media attention around my email communications with Epstein and gifts that he gave me. Many of my emails with Epstein have been taken out of context or do not mean what some have speculated or suggested. With that said, given what I now know about him, I wish I had never dealt with him at all, much less emailed with him,” Ruemmler stated in her opening remarks.
On the presents particularly, Ruemmer stated, “I didn’t ask for them, didn’t need them, and didn’t view them as particularly personal or consequential. I accepted them graciously, as I saw no reason not to. But the gifts weren’t important to me, and I declined to accept some of them. In any event, nothing he gave me caused me to deal with him any differently than I otherwise would have.”
A batch of paperwork launched by the Justice Department on January 30 confirmed how Ruemmler suggested Epstein on lawsuits introduced by his accusers and coordinated responses to journalists, together with relating to a proposed community TV interview with a sufferer that by no means aired.
According to the information, Ruemmler at one level inquired about taking a visit to Epstein’s personal island.
In January 2017, Ruemmler requested Epstein whether or not she might take a “day trip” to the island whereas she was touring within the Caribbean. Later that 12 months, after Hurricane Irma severely broken the island, Ruemmler mused about traveling to the island to assist Epstein clear up.
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson beforehand stated Ruemmler by no means visited the island.
Ruemmler left the Obama White House in 2014 and went to work for Latham & Watkins as head of its white-collar protection group. The agency beforehand advised NCS that Epstein was by no means a consumer. In 2020, Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs and was later promoted to turn out to be the agency’s chief authorized officer.
In a press release to NCS in December, she stated, “I knew Jeffrey Epstein in a professional capacity when I served as head of the white collar defense group at Latham & Watkins, and he was a business referral source. I did not represent him and was not compensated by him. I was one of a number of lawyers Epstein informally reached out to for advice.”
Given that Ruemmler is showing voluntarily, she won’t be sworn in underneath oath. She might be reminded at first of the interview, nonetheless, that making false statements to Congress is topic to felony prosecution. Ruemmler is the panel’s 18th witness to look for an interview as aside of the continued Epstein probe.