Emails Reveal Goldman General Counsel Shared Secret Service Scandal Material with Epstein

The U.S. Department of Justice released millions of documents that include email exchanges in which Goldman Sachs chief legal officer Kathryn Ruemmler shared a draft message about the 2012 U.S. Secret Service prostitution scandal with Jeffrey Epstein and received material gifts from him. Ruemmler announced she will step down effective June 30, 2026 after the latest batch of records became public.

The documents show that months after Ruemmler left her White House counsel post in 2014 she forwarded a draft containing detailed, nonpublic information about the White House Counsel office’s role in investigating the 2012 prostitution scandal. Epstein responded with edits and advice and wrote supportive lines such as, “Breathe, smile. You’re free.” The records include a larger correspondence history described in the release as running to hundreds of messages, with roughly “a dozen or so” exchanges addressing the Secret Service matter.

The released emails also document gifts and an informal tone in the Ruemmler-Epstein relationship. The records include requests and thank-you notes tied to a $9,400 Hermès bag and a $4,200 Fendi coat, and Reuters-flagged references to wine and a handbag. A 2018 exchange routed through a redacted third party shows Epstein attempting to buy a Hermès Apple Watch band; Ruemmler wrote back specifying “I love the Hermes one! If truly okay with him to do the Hermes, I would love the 40 mm, stainless Hermes with bleu indigo swift leather double tour.” Some of those high-dollar items were given before Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs.

The correspondence contains affectionate language. The records preserve references to Epstein as “Uncle Jeffrey” and “another older brother,” and a 2017 message from Ruemmler reads verbatim: “I hear you, sweetie, but there is abuse of p=wer with your stuff too. I know you didn’t think about it tha= way, but it’s there. And, yes, please kee= your head down. :-)” It remains unclear from the files whether Ruemmler implemented Epstein’s suggested edits on the Secret Service material.

Goldman executives privately registered unease after the emails surfaced, with some senior partners saying they would be fired for accepting gifts worth a fraction of what the records show Epstein gave Ruemmler. Publicly, Goldman has defended its former White House counsel hire; CEO David Solomon has called her “an excellent general counsel,” and spokesman Tony Fratto said Epstein “often offered unsolicited favors and gifts to many business contacts.”

Ruemmler has issued a public defense tied to the newly released messages: “I had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal conduct on his part, and I did not know him as the monster he has been revealed to be. These decade-old private emails you are selectively referencing and pruriently reporting on have nothing to do with my work at Goldman Sachs.” Her spokeswoman, Jennifer Connelly, said Ruemmler “has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide. Nothing in the record suggests otherwise.”

The materials intersect with the broader Epstein timeline: he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, was arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019, and died in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019. With Ruemmler’s departure date set for June 30, 2026 and DOJ documents still under review, Goldman faces renewed scrutiny over gift rules, vetting and whether private communications with Epstein ever influenced official work.