A lately unsealed federal court filing means that Kathy Ruemmler, a former White House counsel to President Barack Obama and now the highest lawyer at Goldman Sachs, acted as a key legal adviser to Jeffrey Epstein during a few of his most perilous moments, elevating questions on her public account that their relationship was restricted and casual.
Ruemmler was among the many many high-profile names who appeared in a trove of Epstein emails and textual content messages launched final November. As NCS’s KFile reported, she was one of the crucial regularly referenced, with greater than 100 exchanges between her and the convicted intercourse offender over a number of years. Ruemmler’s identify additionally appeared repeatedly on Epstein’s schedules for deliberate conferences between 2014 and 2019 whereas she labored on the regulation agency Latham and Watkins.
The latest submitting is a part of a civil lawsuit introduced by Epstein victims towards the executors of his property, which is in search of to defend 1000’s of emails from disclosure by asserting attorney-client privilege. Privilege wouldn’t sometimes apply, specialists say, to correspondence between skilled acquaintances discussing enterprise — the form of restricted, casual relationship Ruemmler says she had with Epstein.
In arguing why the contents of these emails ought to stay confidential, the property’s submitting portrays Ruemmler as one among a small group of legal professionals repeatedly consulted by Epstein as he confronted mounting legal publicity and damaging press protection within the years main as much as his 2019 arrest.
According to the property’s descriptions of the emails, Ruemmler was concerned in advising Epstein on a variety of matters, together with efforts to protect his controversial 2008 plea deal, drafting and shaping proposed public statements, enhancing correspondence with a US senator, and even discussions associated to sufferer settlements.
Tony Fratto, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs, the place Ruemmler works as the final counsel for the financial institution, stated in a press release, “It is irresponsible and wrong for NCS to draw conclusions about the content of communications from brief and generic descriptions of emails you haven’t seen. Kathy was not involved in the privilege assertions or the descriptions in the log. As Kathy has told NCS before, she never represented Epstein and never advocated on his behalf to a third party. She was one of many prominent lawyers he informally reached out to for advice.”
On Monday night time, The Wall Street Journal reported {that a} senior Goldman Sachs govt mentioned getting ready a contingency plan for Ruemmler to go away following reporting on her previous ties to Epstein, a characterization the financial institution strongly denied.
Notably, the e-mail descriptions additionally assert that Ruemmler was amongst a gaggle of attorneys who labored with Epstein in 2015 to push again on a deliberate “Good Morning America” interview with one among his most outspoken victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Epstein’s property claims that Ruemmler helped draft a legal letter despatched to ABC News in April 2015 threatening legal motion if the piece aired, which it by no means did.
A NCS evaluation discovered that Ruemmler is included in additional than 300 emails within the privilege log, which exhibits 1000’s of entries between Epstein and his attorneys from as early as 2008 via July 2019. The logs have been supplied as a part of an ongoing civil suit by two alleged victims towards the executors of Epstein’s property.
While there are sometimes a handful of individuals on these emails, together with legal professionals and typically a journalist and a public relations disaster skilled, there are greater than 150 emails between simply Ruemmler and Epstein.
Far from a passive observer who was added to e mail chains amongst Epstein’s legal professionals, Ruemmler seems within the log as an energetic participant in lots of situations. She is listed because the sender of a minimum of 135 of these emails, in accordance with the privilege log.
The lately launched log suggests that Ruemmler performed a far larger position in advising Epstein than beforehand recognized — including critical particulars to the portrait that emerged from the trove of messages launched by the House Oversight Committee in November. While these messages displayed a degree of familiarity and at instances pleasant banter between Ruemmler and Epstein, the outline of the privilege logs signifies one thing way more in depth — a relationship that on its face, and in accordance with specialists, seemed to be that of an legal professional and a shopper.
In response to questions on her relationship with Epstein, Ruemmler instructed NCS last month she “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,” Ruemmler stated in her assertion to NCS, including that she didn’t advocate on his behalf to “third parties” and “not the press, not a court, not a government official.”
Ruemmler herself didn’t reply to extra requests for remark for this piece.
Ruemmler has characterised her relationship with Epstein —who died in jail in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking fees — as restricted and skilled. She stated she solely knew him as a “business referral source.” Epstein in flip as soon as referred to Ruemmler as “my great defender.”
Ruemmler has additionally repeatedly stated she regrets ever realizing Epstein, and she instructed NCS final month she had “no knowledge of any new or ongoing unlawful activity on his part.”
While the contents of the emails stay sealed, the log presents a window into how Epstein and his attorneys navigated a few of his most perilous legal and media battles after his 2008 conviction and incarceration for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The 513-page privilege log was supplied in a swimsuit towards towards Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, who served as Epstein’s legal professional and accountant. The swimsuit alleges the 2 acted as co-conspirators in facilitating Epstein’s sex-trafficking crimes, which the 2 have strenuously denied. A lawyer for the lads instructed the New York Times they “emphatically reject the allegations of wrongdoing” within the lawsuit and known as the claims “baseless and legally frivolous.”
There’s no indication that Ruemmler is a part of the trouble to defend the emails from the general public by asserting attorney-client privilege. She has maintained that she was not Epstein’s legal professional.
Her regulation agency on the time of the correspondence, Latham and Watkins, beforehand instructed NCS Epstein was by no means a shopper of the agency.
Latham and Watkins didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. Ruemmler joined the agency in the summertime of 2014 and left in 2020 to work at Goldman Sachs.
But in accordance with specialists NCS spoke with, Ruemmler’s assertions that she was not his legal professional don’t matter in relation to attorney-client privilege. It is the shopper who asserts privilege.
“Attorney client privilege is the privilege of the client with regard to any communication made to someone for the purposes of legal advice. It does not matter if there’s not a formal representation document or an agreement,” stated Ken Broun, an emeritus professor on the University of North Carolina School of Law.
If, for instance, Epstein reached out to Ruemmler for legal recommendation and she gave it, these communications might be thought-about privileged.
“It’s in the mind of the client that matters. But the client would have to have both a reasonable expectation that that person would provide legal advice to them and that the statement was being made in confidence,” Broun added.
Ruemmler’s assertions that she was by no means compensated by or represented Epstein additionally don’t imply she wasn’t offering him legal counsel or recommendation in some capability.
“You don’t need to be compensated by someone to establish an attorney-client relationship, number one,” stated Elise Maizel, an assistant professor of regulation at Michigan State University College of Law and an knowledgeable on attorney-client privilege. Maizel additionally stated Ruemmler might be considered as having an attorney-client relationship with Epstein even when she by no means signed a proper engagement letter or represented him as his counsel in a specific lawsuit.
“That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t an attorney-client relationship established such that the privilege could apply,” Maizel stated.
Legal memorandum and correspondence with a US senator
Ruemmler’s insistence that she was not compensated by Epstein locations the in depth legal work described within the filings within the realm of professional bono illustration. Such unpaid work by attorneys like Ruemmler, who made $22.5 million in 2024 as Goldman Sachs’ chief legal officer, is commonly value tens and even lots of of 1000’s of {dollars}. That work is usually reserved for poor shoppers or public-interest issues, not for rich convicted intercourse offenders.
The newly unsealed submitting means that Ruemmler’s involvement went far past informal and casual work. Rather than a distant skilled acquaintance, the report portrays her as a trusted legal confidant repeatedly consulted at moments when Epstein’s legal and reputational stakes have been highest.
Among essentially the most consequential work described is a legal memorandum the property says that Ruemmler despatched Epstein in 2015 analyzing a federal lawsuit that threatened to unravel his controversial 2008 non-prosecution settlement that had shielded him from federal fees. Ruemmler despatched the e-mail to Epstein in May 2015, in accordance with the log, with the topic line “CVRA Memorandum 04.16.15.pdf.” The log describes the entry as “providing memorandum containing legal advice.”
Other entries place Ruemmler in discussions about correspondence with lawmakers as political scrutiny intensified.
In early 2019, as then-Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska pressed the Justice Department to analyze how federal prosecutors dealt with Epstein’s case, the log describes a number of emails by which Ruemmler supplied legal recommendation on a proposed response.
One entry exhibits Ruemmler sending Epstein an e mail with the topic line “Suggested edits”; the property’s description reads, “Attorney client communication regarding draft correspondence with Senator Ben Sasse.” The attachment is titled, “Letter to HONORABLE BEN SASSE.doc Edits 2-9-19.doc.”
According to the log, no different attorneys have been included in that trade.
One entry within the log signifies Epstein relied upon Ruemmler to take a primary move at drafting public statements responding to allegations towards him.
In an e mail despatched on October 9, 2016, Epstein wrote to Indyke, his longtime lawyer, that he was “waiting for kathy’s first pass” of a proposed assertion addressing what the property later described as inaccurate sex-abuse claims within the media.
Just over half-hour later, in accordance with the privilege log, Ruemmler was included as a recipient on a associated e mail thread discussing the identical draft define, which recommend her direct involvement in reviewing or shaping the assertion.
The e mail logs additionally present beforehand unreported particulars a couple of essential incident that helped Epstein keep away from public scrutiny of his intercourse crimes at a time when he was making an attempt to rehabilitate his fame. In early 2015, ABC News was getting ready to air a prolonged on-camera interview with Giuffre, who was among the many first to publicly accuse Epstein of intercourse trafficking and abuse.
When Epstein realized of the interview in April 2015, he shortly gathered his attorneys on an e mail chain. Among them was Ruemmler, who within the earlier 12 months had left her job within the Obama White House and was working as a high-dollar legal professional at Latham and Watkins.
The log says that in late April 2015, Ruemmler was throughout greater than a dozen emails showing to debate the ABC News interview. The emails are typically described as “negotiations with media outlet to prevent false allegations from being aired” and “how to deal with media coverage of claims against Epstein.”
One e mail between Epstein and his affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell, by which Ruemmler is listed as an legal professional, is described within the log as “Attorney client communication regarding Good Morning America Interview with REDACTED.”
A replica of ABC’s remark request to Epstein was included within the recordsdata launched by the House Oversight Committee. The request contained an in depth abstract of Giuffre’s allegations, together with claims that Epstein sexually abused her starting when she was a young person, trafficked different underage women, and organized sexual encounters with highly effective males. Among them, in accordance with Giuffre, was then-British royal, Prince Andrew, who was stripped of his royal titles final 12 months over his affiliation with Epstein.
Ruemmler is listed as sending a number of emails to Epstein and his legal professional, Martin Weinberg, on April 22 and 23, 2015.
At least one e mail chain that Ruemmler despatched Epstein and his counsel has the topic line “Privileged and Confidential,” suggesting that she made the choice to characterize the trade as an attorney-client privileged dialog.
She connected a doc known as “Letter to ABC (Draft 3)kr.doc,” seemingly including her initials to the doc’s identify. The April 23 e mail is described by the property as “communication providing draft of a letter to the press seeking to correct the record.”
The following day, April 24, 2015, Weinberg despatched an official letter to ABC News on Epstein’s behalf — a replica of which was launched in November by House investigators.
In the letter, Weinberg argued that Giuffre’s allegations have been uncorroborated, outdated, and contradicted by different proof, and warned ABC News that airing the interview could be “grossly negligent or worse.”
“If ABC has concerns about her credibility with respect to any allegation, it must decline to republish all of her allegations,” the letter from Weinberg learn.
Weinberg, who has previously denied that Ruemmler represented Epstein, instructed NCS, “I regret that I cannot discuss any communications for which the Estate has claimed privilege.”
The ABC News interview by no means aired.
Giuffre, who died by suicide final 12 months, described in her posthumously printed memoir feeling proud to have finished the interview and devastated that it by no means aired.
“I’d been defeated once again by the people I was trying to speak out against. And I couldn’t help but wonder, if a media giant like ABC could be shut down in its attempts to reveal the truth, was there any hope for survivors like me?”
Years later, a leaked 2019 recording captured then-“Good Morning America” co-host Amy Robach expressing frustration that the phase was not broadcast.
“We had everything,” Robach stated.
Robach declined to remark to NCS.
A spokesperson for ABC News pointed NCS to a previous assertion on the incident: “At the time, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story.”
NCS’s Sylvie Kirsch contributed to this report.