Ex-Obama counsel quits Goldman Sachs over ‘Uncle Jeffrey’

Kathy Ruemmler has cited media attention as a “distraction” after unsealed files showed her close ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel under Barack Obama, has announced her resignation from the bank, after newly unsealed files revealed her close personal relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Following the revelations of her affinity for ‘Uncle Jeffrey’, Ruemmler told the Financial Times on Thursday that she would step down as chief legal officer and general counsel at the Wall Street investment bank as of June 30, 2026, because “the media attention... was becoming a distraction.”

In a statement to Reuters earlier this month, Ruemmler said she knew Epstein as a defense attorney, and that this was “the foundation” of their relationship. She claimed she had not had any knowledge of criminal conduct on his part.

The latest documents suggest, however, that she exchanged extensive communications with Epstein from 2014-19, long after his 2008 guilty plea to soliciting prostitution from a minor.

“Am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today! Jeffrey boots, handbag, and watch!” she wrote in January 2019, as quoted by the FT. Other emails suggest she accepted Hermes bags, fur coats, wine, spa appointments, haircuts, and plane tickets from him.

Records also suggest that Epstein called Ruemmler when he was arrested on July 6, 2019. At the time, she was a defense attorney at law firm Latham & Watkins. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2020.

She held senior positions on Goldman’s internal reputational risk and conduct committees, the bodies responsible for policing behavior at the firm.

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Ruemmler’s departure from the bank represents one of the most high-profile corporate downfalls from the sweeping disclosures of Epstein’s emails, the FT said.

The latest batch of documents released by the US Justice Department from the Epstein Estate has triggered political upheaval in several countries, including the UK, where several key figures resigned from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s team over his appointment of former UK envoy Peter Mandelson, who is now under criminal investigation over his links to Epstein.