Emails released by the Department of Justice show that Kathy Ruemmler, former White House counsel under Barack Obama, turned to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for help crafting her response to press inquiries about her alleged role in covering up a prostitution scandal involving a White House aide during a 2012 trip to Colombia.

The revelation lands alongside another development: Ruemmler resigned Thursday as Goldman Sachs's top lawyer, telling The New York Times:

"My responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs's interests first."

The timing tells its own story.

The Colombia scandal and the White House wall

The underlying incident dates to April 2012, when Secret Service agents and military personnel were caught in a prostitution scandal during a presidential trip to Colombia. A White House advance team volunteer — described by the Washington Post as the son of a wealthy Obama campaign donor — was allegedly part of the broader misconduct. A prostitute reportedly stayed overnight in his hotel room, as Daily Caller reports.

Then-Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan reportedly informed Ruemmler on April 20, 2012, that evidence implicated the advance team member. Three days later, White House press secretary Jay Carney stood before reporters and said a review found:

"No indication of any misconduct."

That was the line, and the Obama White House held it for two and a half years — until the Washington Post broke through in October 2014. When the story resurfaced, then-White House spokesman Eric Schultz offered a recycled version of the same denial:

"As was reported more than two years ago, the White House conducted an internal review that did not identify any inappropriate behavior on the part of the White House advance team."

An internal review. Conducted by the same people with every incentive to find nothing. And finding nothing is exactly what they delivered.

Epstein as a crisis consultant

What the DOJ emails reveal is the machinery behind the scenes. When the Washington Post story dropped on October 8, 2014, Epstein emailed Ruemmler a casual check-in:

"[H]ow you doin"

Ruemmler's reply, sent October 9, was not casual at all:

"Doing fine. Was talking to reporters until late in the morning last night. Trying to isolate/contain wapo."

"Isolate/contain." That's not the language of someone with nothing to hide. That's damage control vocabulary — the kind of phrasing you use when truth is the enemy and time is the weapon.

By October 17, Ruemmler had sent Epstein her draft response to a reporter identified as "Carol" — presumably Washington Post reporter Carol D. Leonnig — who was working on a "second phase" of the story. She also forwarded a letter the unnamed aide's attorney had sent to the reporter. Epstein didn't just read along. He workshopped the messaging, questioning the details and probing for angles:

"Hey, the lawyer letter said it was the prostitute that wrote down the room number. ? ?" … "thats a totally different spin on the story, if it wasn't the hotel clerk who wrote it, ie how often do prostitutes lie as to which room they are headed??"

Ruemmler engaged him like a strategist:

"[C]ould have been the prostitute, could have been the hotel clerk"

She then dismissed the underlying evidence entirely:

"The whole thing is ridiculous — they had to obtain the re=ord 'under the table' because the last thing the Hilton wanted t= do is to voluntarily give over info implicating the privacy of their gues=s" … "The procedure for checking in prostitutes is hardly rigorous."

A former White House counsel to the President of the United States was consulting a convicted sex offender on how to spin a prostitution scandal. The person she chose to help her navigate allegations about looking the other way on sexual misconduct was Jeffrey Epstein.

The Larry Summers connection

Epstein's orbit in the Obama world extended beyond Ruemmler. Former Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers — who also served as Harvard's president from 2001 to 2006 — forwarded the Washington Post story to Epstein on October 8, 2014, the day it published, with a note about Ruemmler:

"I fear she should have pulled out last week"

Epstein responded:

"I have some ideas. call when you have a moment."

Two senior Obama administration alumni, looping in a convicted sex offender to strategize about a political crisis. Summers has since resigned from the board of OpenAI after emails exposed his contact with Epstein continuing until Epstein's arrest in 2019, stating he was "deeply ashamed." Harvard launched an investigation into Summers's relationship with Epstein.

The gifts, the apartment, and the attorney general

The relationship between Ruemmler and Epstein was not limited to crisis communications. Between 2014 and 2019, Epstein purchased numerous gifts for Ruemmler — designer bags, electronics, spa days, and more. She sometimes turned to him for legal advice; he sometimes sought hers.

Previously reported emails revealed that Ruemmler consulted Epstein on whether she should pursue the attorney general nomination under Obama. In a September 20, 2014, email, she told Epstein she was "pretty stuck" after signing a year-long lease for an $11,000 a month New York apartment — a detail that suggests the attorney general's consideration was intertwined with lifestyle calculations. By October 24, 2014, it was reported that Ruemmler had dropped out of the race.

On Christmas Day 2015, Ruemmler emailed about Epstein:

"I adore him. It's like having another older brother!"

An older brother who happened to be a convicted sex offender with a private island and a client list that governments are still trying to fully expose.

Goldman knew

Goldman Sachs hired Ruemmler in 2020 as its top lawyer. According to the Wall Street Journal, Goldman Sachs leaders were aware at the time that she had business dealings with Epstein. They hired her anyway. She served in that role until her resignation on Thursday, with a Goldman Sachs staff-wide email stating she would continue to "work with our teams" through June 30 to assist with the transition.

The pattern is familiar. The Obama network protected its own, institutions absorbed the compromised, and accountability arrived only when the paper trail became impossible to explain away.

What the emails actually show

Strip away the legal hedging and public relations choreography, and the picture is stark. The Secret Service director told the White House counsel that evidence pointed to misconduct by a White House team member. Days later, the press secretary told America there was nothing to see. Years later, when a reporter started pulling the thread, the same counsel who received that evidence ran her media strategy through a convicted sex offender's inbox.

Not through a crisis PR firm. Not through White House alumni with legal expertise. Through Jeffrey Epstein.

The Obama administration spent eight years lecturing the country about transparency, accountability, and moral leadership. Its White House counsel spent those post-administration years trading emails with a predator about how to make a prostitution cover-up go away. The contradiction doesn't need commentary. It speaks for itself.