By AnnaMaria Andriotis

When Kathryn Ruemmler, a top Washington lawyer with an elite pedigree, joined Goldman Sachs in 2020, she disclosed to top executives a connection that didn't appear on her LinkedIn page: Jeffrey Epstein. But it's what Goldman didn't know about her association with the notorious sex offender -- details that have become public in the stream of documents released from Epstein's estate -- that now looms over Ruemmler and the bank.

Ruemmler told Goldman's leaders when they hired her that she had business dealings with Epstein when she was a white-collar defense attorney at Latham & Watkins. It would later become public that she met with Epstein dozens of times and exchanged friendly emails for years.

It turned out she was in the courtroom when Epstein was arraigned after his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, and Epstein had listed her as one of the executors on his will as recently as Jan. 18, 2019. Epstein removed her name before he died on Aug. 10, 2019, while he was in prison awaiting trial.

The extent of their relationship has drawn scrutiny inside Goldman Sachs, where the 54-year-old lawyer is general counsel and a top adviser to CEO David Solomon.

John Rogers, the powerful Goldman executive who brought Ruemmler into the bank, recently told a few close associates he was formulating a contingency plan in which she would leave later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The idea would be to give Ruemmler as graceful an exit as possible by distancing it from the Epstein revelations.

In a statement, Rogers said: "That is completely untrue."

Solomon hasn't been involved with the plan, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

"Kathy is an excellent general counsel and we benefit from her advice every day," Solomon said in a statement. "Kathy has always had the support of the entire leadership team and the Board and is widely respected and admired at the firm."

In a statement, Ruemmler told the Journal that she had a professional association with Epstein when "it was my job to engage with people and companies that had serious legal and public relations problems. Many were under criminal investigation, and many had been convicted of crimes."

She said she didn't represent Epstein or advocate on his behalf. Epstein referred clients to her and he "also informally reached out to me for advice from time to time just as he did with numerous other prominent lawyers throughout the country," she said. "As I have said, I regret ever knowing him, and I have enormous sympathy for the victims of Epstein's crimes."

Goldman said it understood the nature of Ruemmler's job in her prior career as a criminal defense attorney. "The executives at Goldman who needed to know about Kathy's prior contact with Epstein knew what they needed to know, and they have never doubted that Kathy has been forthcoming," said Tony Fratto, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs.

"Before she accepted the offer to join Goldman Sachs, she proactively disclosed her association with Jeffrey Epstein and other high-profile clients and contacts who might attract media attention, so that the firm would be aware of them. The firm did its own diligence and was satisfied. Nobody involved in Kathy's hiring had concerns about her prior legal work," Fratto said.

The drumbeat of disclosures about Ruemmler's ties to Epstein have triggered internal and external reviews. The reviews are expected to continue if more information comes to light.

Fratto said the board has been informed on the matter and has complete confidence in Ruemmler.

Some Goldman executives began viewing Ruemmler as a potential liability to the firm in 2023 after the Journal published an article revealing Ruemmler's extensive ties to Epstein. The article revealed she had dozens of meetings with Epstein, that he visited apartments she considered buying and knew her sushi order: avocado rolls.

Then in September 2025, Congress released the Jan. 18, 2019, copy of Epstein's will showing that Ruemmler was listed as a backup executor, setting off fresh alarms inside the bank.

In November, Congress released dozens of emails she had exchanged with Epstein, including some disparaging President Trump, that sparked a panic among some Goldman executives.

"Trump is so gross," Ruemmler wrote in a 2017 message with Epstein. He replied "worse in real life and upclose."

The day of the release Solomon was set to attend a White House dinner Trump was hosting with Wall Street CEOs. Worried Trump might revoke Solomon's dinner invitation, Goldman officials called people they knew with connections to the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter.

Fratto said Goldman never made calls to the White House or administration officials regarding the dinner.

Solomon attended the dinner, but some Goldman executives said they wondered whether Ruemmler could continue in her role. She is the bank's top female executive and sits on a committee that reviews clients' reputational risk. A person in Ruemmler's close circle said she expressed great distress after the messages became public.

Ruemmler's name also appears hundreds of times in a more than 500-page log of emails between Epstein and his lawyers that are under seal because Epstein's estate has cited attorney-client privilege.

Ruemmler said to the Journal she wasn't involved in the Epstein estate's decisions to assert attorney-client privilege. "I had no knowledge whatsoever of any new or ongoing unlawful activity on his part," she said.

Through it all, Ruemmler has had one important supporter: Solomon. She became a close confidante of the CEO and gained his trust by giving honest critiques of some of his ideas, people familiar with the matter said.

Interaction at Latham

Ruemmler and Epstein knew each other around the time she left the Obama administration in 2014, where she had been White House Counsel. She was a partner at Latham & Watkins and worked in its white collar defense group. By that time, Epstein had already pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution and was the subject of tabloid coverage. He had re-emerged as a shadowy, well-connected person on Wall Street.

Reid Weingarten, a lawyer at Steptoe, helped establish Ruemmler's relationship with Epstein while she was at Latham. In one example, Weingarten had represented the Swiss bank Edmond de Rothschild Group before transferring the client to Ruemmler; Epstein was seen as a gatekeeper of the account. In 2015, Epstein had entered into a $25 million consulting agreement with the Swiss bank that he negotiated with Ariane de Rothschild, another of Epstein's associates.

Ruemmler took on Rothschild as a Latham client, representing it in a U.S. regulatory matter. Latham has said Epstein wasn't one of the firm's clients. Weingarten went on to become one of the lawyers who represented Epstein in his 2019 criminal case.

Rogers, the Goldman executive who has long been a powerful player in Washington, had been impressed by Ruemmler's work in the White House and tried to recruit her to join Goldman's top ranks. In 2017, he introduced Ruemmler to then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein when the bank needed a new general counsel. Blankfein met Ruemmler but hired someone else.

Two years later, Goldman was again looking for a new general counsel. Solomon was now CEO and Rogers reiterated his interest in Ruemmler. Rogers and others vetted Ruemmler. She was hired, first as the bank's head of regulatory affairs, in April 2020.

Within months, her Epstein ties began to show. She gave a heads up to several Goldman executives before the Daily Beast published an article in November 2020 revealing she was in the courtroom at Epstein's 2019 arraignment. Others confirmed to the Journal that they saw Ruemmler at the hearing.

That is when some Goldman insiders said they began to wonder if the bank had fully understood Ruemmler's Epstein connections.

Epstein had told some of his lawyers in 2019 that Ruemmler, a former federal prosecutor, could be an asset to his legal defense. Some on the legal team discussed asking her to prepare a letter speaking to his character for a bail hearing and whether she, among other female lawyers considered, could cross-examine some of the women accusing Epstein of abuse, people familiar with the matter said.

Ruemmler told the Journal that she never drafted a letter, represented Epstein or was asked to cross-examine victims. "I did not advocate on his behalf to any third party -- not to a court, not to the press, not to the government," she said.

In March 2021, Goldman promoted her to general counsel.

Alarm inside the bank

In April 2023, the Journal detailed in an article the more extensive connections between Ruemmler and Epstein while she was at Latham. It revealed how the two had met dozens of times, that Epstein had visited apartments she was considering buying and that he offered assistance with her travel planning. It also noted that in 2017 he planned to take her to his island in the Caribbean. At the time of the article, Goldman said Ruemmler never visited Epstein's island or flew with him.

Goldman bankers complained to senior management, pointing out the seeming incongruence of the revelations and Ruemmler's role on the firm's reputational risk committee, which is charged with deciding which clients the bank shouldn't work with. The Epstein matter has nothing to do with her job at Goldman and she was upfront in disclosing her relationship, some of the bankers said they were told.

The person in Ruemmler's close circle said Ruemmler said after the article that Goldman had been supportive of her.

Not everyone at the firm was. In 2024, Solomon organized a dinner at his Manhattan apartment to address the lack of senior women in the highest ranks of the bank, which then had more than 44,000 employees. Some of the women who attended told the Journal at the time that they were appalled that Solomon had Ruemmler help organize the event.

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January 19, 2026 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)

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