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.

Solomon later complained in a separate gathering with high-ranking women that Ruemmler had garnered that kind of reaction. He said he couldn't believe there were senior women at the firm who would bristle at Ruemmler, explaining she was a top adviser and an important resource for the firm, according to people who were present.

Solomon said in a statement that no women ever raised concerns to him about Ruemmler's involvement at the dinner.

Concern inside Goldman had picked up by spring 2025 as the public's focus on releasing the Epstein files intensified. The Trump administration initially vowed to release everything and then pulled back. Some high up the ranks at Goldman thought the firm dodged a bullet, people familiar with the matter said. The relief was short-lived when the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Epstein estate in August.

In September, the House committee released the Jan. 18, 2019, version of Epstein's will that listed Ruemmler as a backup executor.

Her presence on the will had been discovered by some at Goldman as far back as 2023 when an external lawyer informed a Goldman executive, people familiar with the matter said.

Fratto, the Goldman spokesman, said: "We aren't aware of any such contact at the firm, and certainly not to anyone in leadership."

The will was updated before Epstein died, and Ruemmler's name was removed. Ruemmler had asked to be taken out of the document, she told the person in her close circle after Epstein's death.

Fratto said Epstein repeatedly named multiple people as alternate executors in his wills. "Kathy had nothing to do with those decisions, she wasn't in Epstein's final will, and she has had nothing to do with his estate," he said.

Recently released documents reveal Epstein spent years seeking executors who would oversee his estate, trying to tap many of his high-powered associates. It is possible to add people as executors without seeking their permission or informing them.

Jimmy Cayne, the longtime chief executive of Bear Stearns, where Epstein once worked, Jes Staley, the former JPMorgan executive and former CEO of Barclays, and Larry Summers, the former Harvard president, were all named to executor roles in earlier versions of his will. A spokesman for Summers has said he "had absolutely no knowledge that he was included in an early version of Epstein's will." Staley has said he regrets his association with Epstein. Cayne died in 2021. None of the men served a role on his estate.

Personal notes

In the immediate aftermath of the public disclosure of the will, Ruemmler told the person in her close circle she had the backing of management and the board. In one exchange viewed by the Journal, she downplayed the revelation.

Around that time, a senior Goldman executive told the Journal Ruemmler didn't tell Goldman details about her relationship with Epstein before she was hired, including that her name was on the will, that she had dozens of meetings with Epstein and that he was involved in personal matters such as apartment hunting and travel arrangements.

The November batch of Epstein estate emails included messages between Ruemmler and Epstein where the subject matter pertained to meetings with government officials and other high profile figures, and also personal matters.

In response to Ruemmler's comment in September 2014 that "most girls do not have to worry about this crap," regarding a conversation he was asking her to have with someone else, Epstein wrote "'girls?',, careful i will renew an old habit."

In one message Ruemmler wrote to Epstein in 2015, she said she expected to see people "who are at least 100 pounds overweight" when she would "stop to pee" at a rest stop during a drive to New York. Epstein replied, "anytime you like, you can drive right to me and i will feed you.::)"

In a 2016 email exchange, he commented on her "pretty black dress" that he saw her wearing in a news photo.

In December, as part of a lawsuit by Epstein accusers, a log was released of Epstein emails that summarized the messages and included the subject lines. The contents weren't released because of claims of attorney-client privilege.

Ruemmler was on hundreds of the emails from 2014 to 2019, shortly before Epstein was arrested. The emails pertained to legal advice regarding compliance with a nonprosecution agreement and legal strategy related to a case that victims brought to challenge that deal, among other things, according to the summaries.

One of the exchanges, dated February 2018, has the subject line: "Re: this email trail was discovered today !. brad saying the girls got paid for services."

Ruemmler was the sender and recipient of many emails and was often on emails with Martin Weinberg, one of Epstein's criminal defense attorneys, and Darren Indyke, his longtime lawyer. Some emails included Ghislaine Maxwell and were described in the log as communication with counsel.

Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend, was convicted in 2021 for her role in helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls and is serving a 20-year sentence.

A few days after the November release of emails from Congress, Ruemmler and a colleague emailed Goldman staff about completing mandatory communications training. It was the kind of routine email that employees would normally gloss over. Some found Ruemmler's involvement, amid the fallout from the Epstein emails, offensive.

The message read: "Regardless of the language, medium, or mode of communication, what and how you communicate reflects on you and the reputation of the firm."

Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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

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