Ruemmler
(Photo
by
William
B.
Plowman/NBC/NBC
Newswire/NBCUniversal
via
Getty
Images)
If
you’ve
ever
wondered
how
a
monster
like
Jeffrey
Epstein
happens
—
how
he
operated
for
decades,
surrounded
by
some
of
the
most
credentialed,
well-connected
people
in
the
country,
with
seemingly
no
one
willing
to
say
enough
is
enough
—
well,
do
I
have
a
story
for
you.
(Spoiler:
it’s
because
there
are
no
real
consequences
for
the
rich
and
powerful.)
Goldman
Sachs
General
Counsel
Kathryn
Ruemmler,
whose
extensive
and
deeply
cozy
relationship
with
Epstein
we’ve
been
covering
since
the
file
dumps
began,
announced
her
resignation
in
February
and
agreed
to
testify
before
Congress.
But
Goldman,
it
turns
out,
tapped
a
reputation
management
firm
to
try
to
make
sure
you
never
read
any
of
that
coverage
in
the
first
place.
A
New
York
Times
investigation
published
last
month
revealed
that
Goldman
Sachs
hired
Terakeet,
a
Syracuse-based
reputation
management
firm,
as
early
as
2024
—
well
before
the
January
2026
Epstein
file
dump
—
specifically
to
address
Ruemmler’s
“association
risk
problem.”
The
goal,
per
internal
Terakeet
documents
obtained
by
the
Times,
was
to
flood
Google
search
results
with
positive
content
about
Ruemmler
until
at
least
80
percent
of
the
first
30
results
were
favorable.
Terakeet
CEO
Mac
Cummings,
who
described
Ruemmler
as
a
personal
friend
and
predicted
she’d
one
day
sit
on
the
Supreme
Court,
told
his
team:
“We’re
going
to
fix
this
for
you.”
But
when
the
Justice
Department
dropped
3.5
million
Epstein
pages
in
January,
Ruemmler’s
name
appeared
in
over
10,000
of
them.
No
amount
of
LinkedIn
profile
optimization
was
going
to
outrun
that.
Today,
when
you
Google
Kathryn
Ruemmler,
prominently
at
the
top
of
the
results
is
her
Wikipedia
page,
which
notes
right
in
the
opening
paragraph
that
she
resigned
from
Goldman
Sachs
“over
her
links
to
child
sex
offender
Jeffrey
Epstein.”
Here’s
the
thing
about
that
February
resignation,
it
turns
out
it
wasn’t
exactly
a
resignation.
According
to
reports,
CEO
David
Solomon,
who
has
privately
maintained
he
didn’t
think
Ruemmler
did
anything
wrong
or
inappropriate,
pressed
her
to
stay
on,
and
she
agreed.
Goldman
plans
to
elevate
Michael
Bosworth,
a
former
Latham
&
Watkins
partner,
to
interim
general
counsel
in
July.
But
Ruemmler
will
remain
as
an
adviser,
with
her
tenure
depending
on
the
ongoing
legal
matters
she’s
handling
and
whenever
a
permanent
GC
is
eventually
named.
So
she
gets
to
keep
her
job
in
a
different
configuration.
The
“this
is
fine!”
energy
has
truly
never
quit.
Meanwhile,
the
one
senior
Goldman
figure
who
apparently
had
the
temerity
to
tell
Solomon
his
Ruemmler
support
was
a
problem
is
on
his
way
out.
Russell
Horwitz,
Goldman’s
chief
of
staff,
reportedly
raised
concerns
for
months
about
Solomon’s
steadfast
backing
of
Ruemmler
as
successive
Epstein
document
releases
kept
making
things
worse,
according
to
the
Financial
Times.
Horwitz
is
departing
his
role
at
the
end
of
June.
He
denied
his
exit
has
anything
to
do
with
the
Ruemmler
situation.
Sure,
Jan.
He
was,
per
the
FT,
one
of
the
few
senior
figures
willing
to
challenge
Solomon
on
the
issue
at
all.
Make
of
that
what
you
will
about
the
internal
culture
at
one
of
the
most
powerful
financial
institutions
in
the
world,
where
the
person
flagging
a
genuine
reputational
catastrophe
is
the
one
who
ends
up
leaving.
Not
everyone
is
willing
to
let
this
slide
quietly.
Sen.
Elizabeth
Warren
and
Rep.
Raja
Krishnamoorthi,
ranking
members
of
the
Senate
Banking
Committee
and
the
House
Oversight
subcommittee
on
health
care
and
financial
services,
respectively,
sent
a
letter
to
Solomon
this
week
demanding
answers
about
Goldman’s
decision
to
keep
Ruemmler
on.
They
want
to
know
what
the
bank
knew
about
her
Epstein
relationship,
what
due
diligence
it
conducted
after
the
DOJ
document
releases,
and
why
on
earth
Solomon
decided
the
right
move
was
to
press
her
to
stay.
They’ve
given
Goldman
until
June
26
to
respond.
Goldman,
for
its
part,
declined
to
comment.
Which
is,
at
this
point,
their
entire
brand.
This
is
a
story
where
powerful
institutions
treat
accountability
as
a
PR
problem
to
be
managed
rather
than
a
reckoning
to
be
had
and
the
person
who
called
a
convicted
sex
offender
“Uncle
Jeffrey”
still
has
a
corner
office
at
one
of
the
most
powerful
banks
in
the
world.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email her with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter @Kathryn1 or
Bluesky @Kathryn1