Ex-Obama White House Counsel Out at Goldman Sachs After Files Shed Light on Friendship With Jeffrey Epstein

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak), (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

Kathryn Ruemmler, the erstwhile chief legal officer and general counsel at Goldman Sachs, resigned on Thursday after documents released by the Department of Justice showed she had a far more extensive relationship with convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein than she had previously claimed.

Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel under President Barack Obama, had maintained for years that she had a strictly professional relationship with Epstein. But communications in the Department of Justice’s latest release of over 3 million pages of Epstein documents depicted a much closer relationship between the two.

Ruemmler accepted gifts from Epstein, talked about her romantic life, and advised the disgraced financier on how to handle the media scrutiny over abuse allegations against him. Her reference to Epstein as “Uncle Jeffrey” in one message to a colleague sparked widespread media attention over the last few weeks.

“My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’s interests first,” said Ruemmler in a statement confirming her resignation.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said in a statement that Ruemmler “will be missed.”

“I accepted her resignation, and I respect her decision,” he said.

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