Former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler faced a bipartisan grilling in the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday with members of the panel questioning her account of her years-long relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ruemmler, who recently resigned as Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer amid scrutiny over her ties to Epstein, voluntarily appeared for a closed-door interview as part of the committee’s probe into Epstein and his longtime associate, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
Lawmakers in both parties dismissed her claim that her relationship with Epstein was limited, while Democrats argued she should have been interviewed under oath.
“She was desperately trying to distance herself from Epstein, but the reality is, we have the emails,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., a member of the oversight panel, told Fox News Digital. “It’s very clear that she had a pretty friendly relationship with him.”
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“Even when we presented her with the emails, all she could say was that she either showed poor judgment or that her jokes about his massages were in poor taste,” he said. “She also admitted that she knew about the massages. She just didn’t know that they were underage girls.”
“She knew that this wasn’t a man of good character, certainly, and someone who is a sex offender and registered as such,” he went on. “But she saw dollar signs, and she decided that she would overlook all that because he was rich and powerful.”
Wednesday’s interview came after emails released by the Justice Department showed that she met with Epstein numerous times and exchanged emails and gifts years after he was convicted of soliciting a minor in 2008.
The two first connected in 2014 while Ruemmler was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins and continued their relationship into 2019.
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
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Ruemmler has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has said she was unaware of any criminal conduct by Epstein during the years they were in contact.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., also called Ruemmler’s relationship with Epstein “very concerning.”
“Looking at the communication between Ruemmler and Epstein is how she tried and worked as hard as anyone — well I would say more than anyone — and tried to rehabilitate his image after he was convicted of solicitation of a minor,” he said. “So this is someone that was very close with Epstein.”
In conversations with reporters, House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., also questioned Ruemmler’s testimony to the panel.
“I think it is difficult to see how she’s being completely truthful in there with the answer that she’s giving the committee,” Garcia said.
“She made the decision to have an ongoing personal friendship and relationship with someone that had been accused and convicted of sexual assault with a minor, and she has no explanation as to why she chose to continue that relationship,” he continued.
