The top lawyer at Goldman Sachs sought Jeffrey Epstein’s help in getting a senior role at Facebook — just months before he was arrested by the feds for sex trafficking, according to newly released emails.
Kathryn Ruemmler, Goldman Sachs’ chief legal officer, picked Epstein’s brain for advice while she was looking for a top position at Facebook from June 2018 to April 2019, the emails released by the Justice Department reveal.
According to the correspondence, Epstein drafted communications for Ruemmler to send to Sheryl Sandberg, who at the time was chief operating officer of Facebook.
Epstein also advised Ruemmler, at the time a white-collar criminal defense lawyer at Latham & Watkins, on compensation demands and coached her on how to conduct meetings, the Financial Times reported.
The emails also show that Epstein lobbied for Ruemmler’s candidacy with Larry Summers, who had employed Sandberg as his chief of staff when he was Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration.
One of the emails Epstein sent to Summers reads: “your friend sheryl could use ruemmlers help.”
In another email, Epstein wrote to Summers: “sheryl needs ruemmler.”
The documents show Epstein gave Ruemmler lavish gifts, including a Hermès bag, Apple products, spa treatments, plane tickets and luxury accessories.
In one email she wrote she was “totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey.”
Ruemmler also confided in Epstein about a romantic relationship with a married associate of his, with Epstein reassuring her she had “done nothing wrong.”
At the same time, Ruemmler was advising Epstein on media strategy, drafting a proposed response to a Washington Post inquiry that denied he received special legal treatment and emphasized he had “accepted responsibility.”
Despite the emails, Goldman executives have stood by Ruemmler in light of reports that some in the bank view her continued employment as a liability.
“I was a defense attorney when I dealt with Jeffrey Epstein,” Ruemmler told The Post in a statement.
“I got to know him as a lawyer and that was the foundation of my relationship with him. One of his clients became my client too, we regularly worked together, and he asked me for advice as many people do.”
Ruemmler said that she was “friendly with him in that context — it was a professional services business” and that she “dealt with him in the same open and informal way as I deal with most people.”
“This is how I am and how I interact with people in both my professional and personal lives.”
While angling for a job at Facebook, Ruemmler and Epstein were also discussing taking up a position at Google parent company Alphabet as well as a role at Goldman Sachs, her current employer, according to the FT.
The Facebook talks ultimately collapsed in April 2019.
Days later, John Waldron, president and COO of Goldman, urged Ruemmler to turn down other offers so Goldman could “design something compelling” for her.
Ruemmler added that she “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.”
“And none of this helps to bring closure or justice to the girls and young women who were victims of his crimes, for whom I have enormous sympathy.”
Epstein once boasted about meeting Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel at what he described as a “wild” dinner,” according to one of the emails released by the Justice Department.
The late sex offender referenced referenced the dinner in an Aug. 20, 2015 email to billionaire Tom Pritzker, who had asked him if he was planning to travel to New York later that month.
Epstein replied: “not sure yet. i had dinner with zuckerburg, mu=k, thiel hoffman, wild.”
“Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that was not organized by Epstein,” Zuckerberg spokesman Ben LaBolt said in 2019, when the news of the email was first reported by Vanity Fair.
“Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner.”
Summers has long faced scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, including meetings after Epstein’s 2008 conviction and appearances in multiple caches of released emails.
Summers was previously named in an early version of Epstein’s will as a potential executor — a role he has said he had “absolutely no knowledge” of — and has acknowledged regretting his association with Epstein.
As a result of the revelations, Summers resigned from multiple high-profile roles, including the board of OpenAI, lost fellowships and contributor positions at major institutions and media outlets, and was placed on leave from his teaching and leadership posts at Harvard.
Both Sandberg and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, declined to comment. A spokesperson for Summers could not be immediately reached for comment.
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