Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel and former general counsel at Goldman Sachs, testified before a House committee in July 2026 that some allegations made by Virginia Giuffre, a prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, “lacked inherent credibility,” according to transcripts released by the US Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Ruemmler’s name appeared thousands of times in records related to Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial. The files revealed Ruemmler had accepted gifts from Epstein, addressed him with terms like “Uncle Jeffrey” and “sweetie” in emails, and offered informal advice on how he might respond to questions about his sex crimes.

During her testimony, when asked by the House oversight committee if she believed Giuffre was a victim of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Ruemmler responded, “I don’t know.”

Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, Sky and Amanda Roberts, condemned Ruemmler’s remarks in a statement to CNN, calling it “reprehensible” to cast doubt on Virginia Giuffre, whose courage led many survivors to come forward and resulted in over 50 people stepping down from positions of power. They said, “She should be ashamed of herself.”

A spokesperson for Ruemmler, Jennifer Connelly, stated that Ruemmler had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity by Epstein and that there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Another representative clarified that Ruemmler was expressing skepticism about specific unsubstantiated claims, not all allegations made by Giuffre.

Ruemmler was called to testify following the release of numerous emails exchanged between her and Epstein from 2014 to 2019.

Sources