Who is Kathryn Ruemmler? Epstein emails with Obama’s former counsellor claim disgraced financier severed ties with Bill Clinton

The spotlight has been put back on Kathryn Ruemmler, White House Counsel under President Obama and current Chief Legal Officer at Goldman Sachs, just as newly published congressional logs have revealed that she exchanged emails with now deceased banker Jeffrey Epstein.

The new correspondence lends light on Epstein’s claim that he ended a friendship with former President Bill Clinton, whom he called a liar after they had parted over some personal misconduct.

Kathryn Ruemmler, a powerful and well-connected Washington lawyer who held the post of President Obama’s longest-serving White House Counsel, also worked on national security matters, domestic policy and judicial appointments.

- **Kathryn Ruemmler**: White House Counsel (2011-2014); Partner, Latham & Watkins (2014+)
- **Peter Thiel**: Co-founder, PayPal; President, Palantir Technologies
- **Larry Summers**: Harvard Professor; Former US Treasury Secretary
- **William Burns**: US Deputy Secretary of… https://t.co/KNDn2eVaqh

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Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, she was Global Chair of Latham & Watkins’ White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice, and she also served in several senior roles at the Department of Justice, most recently as a lead prosecutor on the Enron Task Force.

The release of more than 20,000 Epstein emails this week by the House Oversight Committee showed a long chain of correspondence between Epstein and Ruemmler dating back to 2016.

"Stopped talking to Clinton when he swore with wholehearted conviction to me that he had done something—only to later swear the exact opposite," Jeffrey Epstein wrote in one January email.

The nature of the disagreement is unclear, but it marks the first known reference to a falling out between Epstein and Clinton, whose relationship has been previously marred by scandal.

More about Kathryn Ruemmler's connection to Jeffrey Epstein and Epstein's relationship with Bill Clinton

Ruemmler and Epstein reportedly discussed politics and social matters in the years leading up to the 2016 election. At one point, she was observed describing a separate acquaintance as “very close to a psychopath,” sources who read the e-mails have said (as per NY Post), but those familiar with them clarified that the comment referred to someone else other than Clinton.

Goldman Sachs says that Ruemmler’s dealings with Epstein were restricted to business related to a mutual client when she was in private practice.

Epstein’s association with Bill Clinton goes back to the early 1990s when he donated to his political campaigns and visited the White House multiple times. Clinton also took several trips on Epstein’s private jet, known as the “Lolita Express,” in the early 2000s for humanitarian work.

Epstein and Clinton stayed in touch with each other after the former President left office, but he has maintained that he was unaware of any wrongdoing by the financier.

Ruemmler has not been accused of any misconduct due to the recent discovery and is still closely regarded by the legal industry. Since Epstein’s arrest and death in 2019, police and journalists have continued to probe the financier’s social and political links to figures as high-profile as Clinton, Prince Andrew and numerous elected officials.

The new revelations about the emails have reignited questions about the extent of those relationships and the political influence that Epstein tried to cultivate.