Kathy Ruemmler, now Goldman Sachs' top lawyer, thanked 'Uncle Jeffrey' Epstein for gifts, emails show

• Newly released emails reveal Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly gave luxury gifts to Kathryn Ruemmler.
• Ruemmler, who says her association with Epstein was professional, called him Uncle Jeffrey in a note.
• Goldman Sachs, where Ruemmler now works, has stood behind her.

A new trove of emails released Friday is shedding more light on the relationship between Kathryn Ruemmler, who is now Goldman Sachs' top lawyer, and Jeffrey Epstein — who sent her expensive gifts, including an Hermès bag.

"So lovely and thoughtful! Thank you to Uncle Jeffrey!!!" Ruemmler wrote in 2018 after Epstein had something delivered to her New York apartment.

Ruemmler's relationship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender, has been closely examined. Multiple disclosures of once-private emails have shown the pair had a much deeper relationship than was previously publicly known.

Goldman spokesperson Tony Fratto said in a statement that it is "well known that Epstein often offered unsolicited favors and gifts to his many business contacts."

"As Kathy has said many times, she had a professional association with Jeffrey Epstein when she was a lawyer in private practice, heading the defense and investigations practice at a global law firm," the statement said. "She regrets ever knowing him."

The latest batch of emails reveals that Epstein repeatedly gave Ruemmler pricey gifts, and she appeared delighted with them.

"OH MY GOD!!! He is in so much =rouble!!!! I am dying," Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff wrote in 2016, passing along Ruemmler's reaction to getting the Hermès handbag. "It is so beautiful."

A receipt for the bag, a Jlypslere 31, showed it cost $9,350. It wasn't the only accessory she received from him. In a 2015 exchange, Ruemmler said she "absolutely love[d] the handbag" Epstein sent her for her 44th birthday.

"I joked with Jeffrey that I was worried he was sending me a cane," Ruemmler wrote in an email to a redacted recipient, who appears to be another Epstein assistant.

In 2019, she wrote that her outfit that day was thanks to Epstein.

"Am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today! Jeffrey boots, handbag, and w=tch!" she wrote.

In a separate exchange in 2018, Ruemmler asked whether it was OK to request a higher-end, Hermès-branded Apple Watch.

"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 wrote at the time. "I'll wear that one every day, whereas the sportier ones I would likely only wear on weekends or when exercising, etc."

At the time of the emails, Ruemmler was a top attorney at Latham & Watkins. Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor, had re-established himself as a financier with ties to the rich and powerful.

In 2019, Epstein was indicted on sweeping federal sex-trafficking charges and killed himself in jail while awaiting trial. Ruemmler, who had served as White House counsel from 2011 to 2014, joined Goldman Sachs in 2020.

Goldman Sachs, led by CEO David Solomon, has remained behind Ruemmler amid questions about her ties to Epstein.

"She's an excellent lawyer, and the organization relies on her guidance every single day," Solomon told CNBC in November.

On Friday, the Justice Department said in a letter to Congress that it would release 3 million new Epstein-related files. The department said some 200,000 documents will be at least partially withheld from the public. The disclosures are required by the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed Congress with wide bipartisan support in November.