David Solomon defends Goldman Sachs lawyer – Business News
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on Friday praised the bank’s outgoing high lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, after she handed in her resignation amid intense media scrutiny of her ties with late financier and intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The 64-year-old Wall Street titan mentioned Ruemmler, whose elite creds embody former Obama White House common counsel, had been an “extraordinary general counsel” for the US financial giant and “tremendous human being.”
“I’m disappointed that it got to this,” Solomon instructed CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “But I respect her decision, and we are moving on.”
Goldman CEO Solomon, seen right here talking at an occasion in Washington, DC, final 12 months, had doggedly caught by the bank’s high counsel. REUTERS
Ruemmler will formally go away Goldman Sachs on June 30, in response to a assertion from her spokeswoman.
The Post sought additional remark from her rep after Solomon’s media look.
The bank’s chief govt, who succeeded Lloyd Blankfein in 2018, mentioned that Ruemmler known as him on Thursday and instructed him she was stepping down after six years at Goldman due to the “noise and distraction” created by the release of the Epstein information — by which she surfaced as a sturdy ally of the creep’s even after his guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
“It was putting her in a position where it was hard for her to execute on her job and her responsibilities, and she just thought it was time to step away,” Solomon mentioned Friday.
Files launched by the Justice Department beginning final month confirmed a close relationship by which Ruemmler described Epstein as an “older brother” and downplayed his intercourse crimes, even signing off her emails with “xoxo.”
In one eyebrow-raising message, first reported by CNN, Ruemmler emailed Epstein on his 62nd birthday in 2015: “I hope you enjoy the day with your one true love :-)”
Ruemmler served as a senior lawyer in each Obama administrations. AP
Emails between Epstein and his associates got here to mild after a doc dump by the Justice Department.
Epstein replied: “they say that men usually gvie [sic] a name to their penis, as [it] would be inappropriate to make love to a total stranger.”
“Hard to believe that there is still an open question about whether men are [the] inferior gender,” wrote Ruemmler — amongst 1000’s of emails she exchanged with Epstein earlier than his second arrest for intercourse crimes, in 2019.
The former Latham and Watkins lawyer repeatedly gushed over the presents lavished upon her by the disgraced financier, whom she as soon as known as Uncle Jeffrey.
Epstein was arrested on intercourse trafficking fees in July 2019. He died in his Manhattan jail cell the next month, in what New York City’s chief health worker known as a suicide. Corbis by way of Getty Images
The messages additionally show that Ruemmler helped Epstein coordinate a response when ABC News was making ready a section on “Good Morning America” that includes one of his accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
She by no means formally represented the convicted intercourse offender as his lawyer, however repeatedly sought his advice on her attainable profession strikes together with how to land a high job at Facebook, now generally known as Meta.
Epstein was arrested on intercourse trafficking fees in July 2019. He died in his Manhattan jail cell the next month, in what New York City’s chief health worker known as a suicide.
The just lately launched paperwork supplied more particulars about Epstein’s ties to outstanding people in politics, finance and academia, each earlier than and after his 2008 guilty plea.
In 2018, a third get together whose identify was redacted by the federal government emailed Ruemmler to say that Epstein needed to buy a band for her Apple Watch.
“I love the Hermes one!” she responded. “If truly okay with him to do the Hermes, I would love the 40 mm, stainless Hermes with bleu indigo swift leather double tour.”
Ruemmler was one of Solomon’s first main hires when he took over the reins at 200 West St. and was seen as one of his high loyalists at Goldman.
