Ex-Goldman Sachs Top Lawyer Tells Congress Epstein Was a 'Masterful Liar' Who Used Her for Cover

Kathryn Ruemmler, the former top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and a onetime White House counsel to President Barack Obama, told a House committee on Wednesday that Jeffrey Epstein was a "masterful liar" who exploited his relationships with prominent people to lend himself legitimacy — and acknowledged that dealing with him at all "was a mistake."

Ruemmler appeared before the House Oversight Committee as part of its widening investigation into Epstein's network of powerful associates. She testified that she never represented the disgraced financier, knew him through a shared legal client, and had no knowledge of his criminal conduct. "I never witnessed any criminal activity," she said, according to people in the room, while conceding that the relationship had been an error in judgment.

Lawmakers pressed her on a trove of correspondence that has drawn intense scrutiny. Documents show Ruemmler referred to Epstein as "Uncle Jeffrey" in emails and told him that she adored him. In a March 2019 message, she suggested language he could use to rebut criticism of the lenient 2008 plea deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution. Ruemmler characterized the exchanges as the product of manipulation by a man who deceived many sophisticated people.

Epstein "used his relationships with people to make himself appear legitimate," Ruemmler testified, describing how he cultivated bankers, lawyers and politicians. He had sent her gifts, she said, and she had at times offered him informal advice about handling media scrutiny — but she insisted she never saw evidence of the abuse for which he was later charged before his 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell.

Ruemmler served as White House counsel from 2011 to 2014 and was once floated as a potential attorney general. She spent the past six years as Goldman Sachs' general counsel before announcing in February that she would step down amid mounting backlash over her ties to Epstein. Her appearance is among the most high-profile in a congressional probe that has increasingly focused on the professional enablers who surrounded him.

Republicans and Democrats on the panel have vowed to continue calling witnesses, and members from both parties left the session signaling that more testimony — and more documents — are likely to follow in the weeks ahead. The committee has also requested records from several banks and law firms that did business with Epstein, a sign that the inquiry into his web of enablers is far from over. Ruemmler, for her part, said she hoped her account would "put to rest" any suggestion that she had knowingly aided him.