Top Goldman Sachs lawyer who called Epstein 'Uncle Jeffrey' resigns

Goldman Sachs' top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, has announced she will step down from her role after months of pressure over her friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Emails disclosed by the US justice department show she referred to the convicted paedophile in emails as "Uncle Jeffrey", advised him on how to push back against media and accepted luxury gifts from him.

"My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs' interests first," Ruemmler, who previously served as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, said in a statement.

Goldman CEO David Solomon thanked her for "sound advice". Her resignation will take effect from 30 June.

"Throughout her tenure, Kathy has been an extraordinary general counsel, and we are grateful for her contributions," Solomon said in a statement.

"Kathy has also been a mentor and friend to many of our people, and she will be missed. I accepted her resignation, and I respect her decision."

There is no suggestion that appearing in the documents implies any criminal activity, but the drip of revelations became a public relations headache for the Wall Street bank, where she led its reputational risk committee. She joined Goldman in 2020.

Ruemmler said in a statement to Reuters news agency earlier this month: "I got to know him [Epstein] as a lawyer and that was the foundation of my relationship with him.

"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."

The BBC has contacted Ruemmler for comment.

Emails show she had a large number of communications with Epstein from 2014-19, when she was in private practice after leaving the White House.

Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a child.

In one December 2015 email exchange, Ruemmler wrote to a redacted recipient. "I adore him [Epstein]. It's like having another older brother!"

That message came after Epstein offered to buy her a first-class ticket to Europe, reports the BBC's US partner CBS.

Her exit from Goldman follows the release of handwritten notes from a law enforcement official who participated in Epstein's arrest for sex trafficking in July 2019.

The notes suggest that on the night he was taken into custody, Epstein called Ruemmler, whose mobile phone number is redacted in the documents.

She has said she never represented Epstein as a legal client.

Communications from March 2019, four months before Epstein's arrest for sex trafficking, show Ruemmler advising him on how to push back on media scrutiny that his 2008 plea deal was too lenient.

"Far from [receiving] a sweetheart deal, Mr Epstein was subjected to a lengthy, aggressive, [and] highly unusual federal investigation for what were, in essence, local [offenses] of sexual solicitation," Ruemmler wrote.

She also suggests arguing that Epstein was being persecuted due to his "wealth".

The emails also show that Epstein lavished gifts on Ruemmler, including flowers, wine, a Hermès bag, $10,000 in Bergdorf Goodman gift cards and an Apple watch.

"Am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today! Jeffrey boots, handbag, and watch!" Ruemmler wrote in a 2019 message.

Last month a Goldman spokesman played down the gifts, saying: "It's well known that Epstein often offered unsolicited favors and gifts to his many business contacts."

Ruemmler's departure is the latest corporate resignation linked to the latest Epstein disclosures.

Last week, the chairman of prestigious US law firm Paul Weiss, Brad Karp, stepped down after emails revealed that he and Epstein had discussed his 2008 conviction.