Former Goldman Sachs General Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler appeared before the House Oversight Committee this week for a closed-door, transcribed interview about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Ruemmler, who has also served as White House counsel and as a Biglaw partner, delivered an opening statement that was obtained by multiple news outlets ahead of the session.
In her prepared remarks, she leaned heavily on a familiar defence: that her knowledge of Epstein’s crimes only came after the fact, not during their dealings.
“If I knew then what I know now about who Epstein really was, I never would have accepted an initial meeting with him,” she told the committee in her statement.
“It was a mistake to deal with him, and I regret it,” she added, maintaining that the assumption she must have known about his conduct at the time is “completely wrong.”
She further told the committee she “did not see any evidence of ongoing criminal conduct or misconduct of any kind by Epstein during the time I dealt with him.”
Ruemmler also stated that she would have “immediately reported him to law enforcement” had she witnessed anything she considered criminal or improper during that period.
Legal scholars have pushed back sharply on the framing, describing her testimony as a textbook exercise in narrative management rather than genuine accountability, with some calling it “classic gaslighting.”
The testimony follows a series of damaging revelations, including email disclosures, career-counselling arrangements involving Epstein, and a reported joke about trading one of Epstein’s so-called “Russians” for better compensation.
Her appearance before the committee also comes after what was widely described as a resignation from Goldman Sachs that did not ultimately function as a conventional departure from the firm.
Critics have noted that Ruemmler has deployed the same hindsight-only defence consistently throughout each successive wave of damaging disclosures tied to her Epstein connections.
The House Oversight Committee has not yet publicly disclosed the full transcript of the interview, though her opening statement has been widely circulated among major news organisations following the session.