{"id":143419,"date":"2026-02-05T16:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/05\/top-goldman-attorney-joked-about-trading-russians-for-money-with-jeffrey-epstein\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:37:27","slug":"top-goldman-attorney-joked-about-trading-russians-for-money-with-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/05\/top-goldman-attorney-joked-about-trading-russians-for-money-with-jeffrey-epstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Goldman Attorney \u2018Joked\u2019 About Trading Russians For Money With Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

The relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Goldman Sachs\u2019s top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, has put\u00a0quite the spotlight<\/a>\u00a0on her. The Epstein files reveal thousands of communications between the pair. Ruemmler said of their connection, \u201cI was a defense attorney when I dealt with Jeffrey Epstein. I got to know him 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But documents in the most recent Epstein file dump suggest Ruemmler knew something was up. <\/p>\n

We know that Epstein was deeply involved in plotting out Ruemmler\u2019s career<\/a>, offering advice and negotiation tips on job offers. And in a June 2016 email exchange<\/a>, the pair were discussing a potential job at hedge fund Citadel (Ruemmler never worked a Citadel, at the time of these emails was she was a partner at Latham & Watkins and co-chair of its white-collar defense group; in 2020, Ruemmler left Biglaw for the in-house world at Goldman Sachs, where she currently serves as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel).<\/p>\n

Ruemmler seems skeptical about the job, and Epstein says \u201cthere is the off chance that [hedge fund founder Ken Griffin] might just be interested in a woman.\u201d Ruemmler thumbs her nose at the notion of DEI, writing, \u201cI ain\u2019t no affirmative action.\u201d Epstein responds, \u201ci meant romantically.\u201d And then comes the stomach churning line, \u201cOh, Jesus \u2014 meaning you are going to trade one of your Russians for my comp?!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Epstein is known<\/a> to have paid \u201costensible foreign models,\u201d and the most charitable read is that Ruemmler was merely joking that trafficking one of Epstein\u2019s Russian models to her maybe-boss might lead to a more favorable compensation package\u2026 or she suspected that was something the \u201cmonster\u201d Jeffrey Epstein might really do on behalf of a trusted friend. (From all appearances, Griffin is just catching strays here, and Citadel said, \u201cKen\u00a0has never met or communicated with\u00a0Epstein.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Either way it\u2019s an awful look for the prominent attorney.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Top Goldman Attorney \u2018Joked\u2019 About Trading Russians For Money With Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Goldman Sachs\u2019s top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, has put\u00a0quite the spotlight<\/a>\u00a0on her. The Epstein files reveal thousands of communications between the pair. Ruemmler said of their connection, \u201cI was a defense attorney when I dealt with Jeffrey Epstein. I got to know him 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But documents in the most recent Epstein file dump suggest Ruemmler knew something was up. <\/p>\n

We know that Epstein was deeply involved in plotting out Ruemmler\u2019s career<\/a>, offering advice and negotiation tips on job offers. And in a June 2016 email exchange<\/a>, the pair were discussing a potential job at hedge fund Citadel (Ruemmler never worked a Citadel, at the time of these emails was she was a partner at Latham & Watkins and co-chair of its white-collar defense group; in 2020, Ruemmler left Biglaw for the in-house world at Goldman Sachs, where she currently serves as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel).<\/p>\n

Ruemmler seems skeptical about the job, and Epstein says \u201cthere is the off chance that [hedge fund founder Ken Griffin] might just be interested in a woman.\u201d Ruemmler thumbs her nose at the notion of DEI, writing, \u201cI ain\u2019t no affirmative action.\u201d Epstein responds, \u201ci meant romantically.\u201d And then comes the stomach churning line, \u201cOh, Jesus \u2014 meaning you are going to trade one of your Russians for my comp?!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Epstein is known<\/a> to have paid \u201costensible foreign models,\u201d and the most charitable read is that Ruemmler was merely joking that trafficking one of Epstein\u2019s Russian models to her maybe-boss might lead to a more favorable compensation package\u2026 or she suspected that was something the \u201cmonster\u201d Jeffrey Epstein might really do on behalf of a trusted friend. (From all appearances, Griffin is just catching strays here, and Citadel said, \u201cKen\u00a0has never met or communicated with\u00a0Epstein.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Either way it\u2019s an awful look for the prominent attorney.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Top Goldman Attorney \u2018Joked\u2019 About Trading Russians For Money With Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Goldman Sachs\u2019s top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, has put\u00a0quite the spotlight\u00a0on her. The Epstein files reveal thousands of communications between the pair. Ruemmler said of their connection, \u201cI was a defense attorney when I dealt with Jeffrey Epstein. I got to know him as a lawyer and that was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-ttEro2.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}