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{"id":25901,"date":"2026-07-15T18:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-accuse-kathy-ruemmler-of-lying-about-her-ties-to-jeffrey-epstein\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T18:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:17:32","slug":"democrats-accuse-kathy-ruemmler-of-lying-about-her-ties-to-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-accuse-kathy-ruemmler-of-lying-about-her-ties-to-jeffrey-epstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats accuse Kathy Ruemmler of lying about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had harsh criticism for Kathy Ruemmler, the former top counsel for Goldman Sachs, as she testified Wednesday as part of the panel\u2019s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters during a break in proceedings, Democratic members of the committee questioned Ruemmler\u2019s credibility and the nature of her ties to the late, convicted sex offender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer responses have been shameful,\u201d Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the committee&#8217;s top Democrat, told reporters. \u201cWe can all read the emails in the files about her making jokes about massages, about her making jokes about Russian women, about her making jokes about Epstein&#8217;s girls. For her to deny that there was any type of real relationship there \u2014 I don&#8217;t buy that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heading into the transcribed interview Wednesday morning, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said that Ruemmler was \u201cthe one that was with [Epstein] until the very end,\u201d and that she worked to \u201crehabilitate his image.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Committee members pressed Ruemmler inside the closed-door meeting on the content of her emails, which were released by the Justice Department months ago as part of a trove of Epstein case files, as well as on the gifts she received from Epstein and on the advice that she exchanged with him.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s the latest former Democratic official and Wall Street operative to appear before the Oversight panel, which has also brought in former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Ruemmler served as counsel for the Obama administration before leaving for the private sector, where she connected with Epstein while at law firm Latham &amp; Watkins.<\/p>\n<p>Ruemmler told the Oversight Committee that Epstein was a \u201cmasterful liar,\u201d that he used her and others to legitimize himself and that it was a \u201cmistake to deal with him,\u201d according to a copy of her opening statement viewed by Blue Light News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[If] I had seen or heard any evidence suggesting that he was abusing women or girls, I would have immediately reported him,\u201d she said, according to prepared remarks \u2014 adding that she cut ties with Epstein following his 2019 indictment.<\/p>\n<p>But Democrats left the first half of her testimony unsatisfied by her claims that she did not have a friendship with Epstein. \u201cWe know that is BS,\u201d Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas) told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe&#8217;s taking no responsibility, and we&#8217;re going to continue to grill her,\u201d Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) told reporters. \u201cWe don&#8217;t care if she&#8217;s a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Ruemmler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had harsh criticism for Kathy Ruemmler, the former top counsel for Goldman Sachs, as she testified Wednesday as part of the panel\u2019s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Speaking to reporters during a break in proceedings, Democratic members of the committee questioned Ruemmler\u2019s credibility and the nature [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}