Former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler turned to Jeffrey Epstein for help responding to allegations that she helped cover up an aide’s prostitution scandal, which emerged while she was under consideration to become attorney general, emails released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) reveal.
Ruemmler, who resigned from her position as Goldman Sachs’s top lawyer on Thursday over her extensive ties to Epstein, enlisted the convicted sex offender in workshopping her response to an October 2014 press inquiry.
White House aides, including Ruemmler, allegedly failed to “thoroughly” investigate or publicly acknowledge evidence that a prostitute stayed overnight in an advance team volunteer’s hotel room during a 2012 Colombia trip, The Washington Post reported on Oct. 8, 2014. Ruemmler left the White House in May 2014 and was working in private practice when the story broke.
“[H]ow you doin,” Epstein emailed Ruemmler on Oct. 9, after the story dropped.
“Doing fine,” she replied. “Was talking to reporters until late in the morning last night. Trying to isolate/contain wapo.”
On Oct. 17, 2014, Ruemmler sent Epstein her draft response to an email from “Carol” — presumably then-Washington Post reporter Carol D. Leonnig, who broke the original report — about a “second phase” of her story.
Epstein questioned whether the aide still denied the incident. “[I]mportant point,” he wrote, according to emails released by the DOJ.
Ruemmler affirmed he did, noting she was “making some more tweaks.”
Ruemmler and the Obama Foundation did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Ruemmler Oct. 17, 2014 email to Epstein. (Credit: Screenshot/DOJ)
“Hey, the lawyer letter said it was the prostitute that wrote down the room number. ? ?” Epstein followed up after Ruemmler said she was looking at his edits. “thats a totally different spin on the story, if it wasn’t the hotel clerk who wrote it, ie how often do prostitutes lie as to which room they are headed??”
Ruemmler said she didn’t know. “[C]ould have been the prostitute, could have been the hotel clerk,” she wrote.
“The whole thing is ridiculous — they had to obtain the re=ord ‘under the table’ because the last thing the Hilton wanted t= do is to voluntarily give over info implicating the privacy of their gues=s,” Ruemmler told Epstein. “The procedure for checking in prostitutes is hardly rigorous.”
Later that same day, Kathy forwarded Epstein a letter the aide’s attorney sent to the Washington Post reporter, urging her not to use his name in future stories.
Then-Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan reportedly told Ruemmler on April 20, 2012 there was evidence the White House advance team member was part of the broader prostitution scandal involving Secret Service agents and military personnel. Then-White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters April 23, 2012 that a review found “no indication of any misconduct.”
“As was reported more than two years ago, the White House conducted an internal review that did not identify any inappropriate behavior on the part of the White House advance team,” then-White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in response to the Washington Post’s 2014 story.
The White House aide allegedly involved in the prostitution scandal was the son of a wealthy Obama campaign donor, the Washington Post reported.
2017. Jeffrey Epstein’s good friend Kathryn Ruemmler explains that she ran Obama’s vetting and ethics department and was responsible for vetting all of Obama’s cabinet members.
Ruemmler also said that she was saddened because Trump had “debased” the Presidency.
Ruemmler was so… pic.twitter.com/cw0afN1t8Y
— MAZE (@mazemoore) February 13, 2026
Ruemmler was still under consideration to be Obama’s new attorney general when the Washington Post story broke. It was reported that Ruemmler dropped out of the race on Oct. 24, 2014.
“I fear she should have pulled out last week,” Lawrence Summers, former director of Obama’s White House National Economic Council, wrote in an Oct. 8 email to Epstein, forwarding the story.
“I have some ideas,” Epstein replied. “call when you have a moment.”
Summers resigned from the board of OpenAI in November over emails exposing his contact with Epstein up until his arrest in 2019, stating he was “deeply ashamed” of his actions. Harvard University, where Summers served as president from 2001-2006, also launched an investigation into his relationship with Epstein.
“My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’s interests first,” Ruemmler said in a statement Thursday about her resignation, according to The New York Times. A staff-wide email announcing her resignation stated she would still “work with our teams” to assist with the transition until June 30, per the NYT.
Goldman Sachs leaders were aware Ruemmler had business dealings with Epstein when she was hired in 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Previously reported emails show Ruemmler consulted Epstein on whether she should take on the role as Obama’s attorney general, sharing in one Sept. 20, 2014 email that she was “pretty stuck” after signing a year-long lease for an $11,000 a month New York apartment.
Epstein purchased numerous gifts for Ruemmler between 2014 and 2019, such as designer bags, electronics, spa days and more. He sometimes turned to her for legal advice and help responding to media questions.
“I adore him,” Ruemmler wrote in one Dec. 25, 2015 email. “It’s like having another older brother!”
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CTForum)
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