Kathryn Ruemmler was blasted by family of late Virginia Giuffre after House committee transcripts were released
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A former White House counsel and former general counsel of Goldman Sachs, who has faced scrutiny over her past ties toJeffrey Epstein, told a House committee this month that some of the allegations made by one of his most prominent accusers “lacked inherent credibility”, according to newlyreleased transcripts.
Kathryn Ruemmler’s name appearedthousands of timesin records related to Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, that were released earlier this year by the US Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The files revealed Ruemmler had accepted gifts from Epstein, whodied by suicidewhile awaiting trial in 2019 after he wasarrested by federal authorities, at times addressed him as“Uncle Jeffrey” and“sweetie” in emails, and offered himinformal adviceon how torespond toquestionsabouthis sex crimes.
Ruemmler’s testimony before Congress when she was asked about Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein’s abuse, was swiftly criticized by Giuffre’s family. “She should be ashamed of herself,” Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, Sky and Amanda Roberts, said in a statement. Giuffredied by suicide in April 2025.
“Do you believe that Virginia Giuffre was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell?” the House oversight committee asked Ruemmler, who served as the White House counsel in theObama administration, during her interview with the panel earlier this month part of its investigation into Epstein.
“I don’t know,” she responded, according toa transcriptreleased on Wednesday.
Ruemmler went on to add: “If she says that she was, I don’t have a reason to doubt that. However, there were allegations that she made that were, I believed based on my experience as a former prosecutor and as a defense counsel, that were of such a nature that they were – they lacked inherent credibility.
“Typically, when someone says, I was sex trafficked to someone, they say who, when, where, not multiple world leaders, multiple foreign presidents,” she said.
Her remarks were condemned by Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, who said in a statement that it as “reprehensible” to “attempt to cast doubt on Virginia, whose bravery was the reason so many other survivors stepped forward, resulting in more than 50 people having to step down from their positions of power”.
They said that “the only person who lacks credibility is Kathy Ruemmler”.
Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, had previously testified and alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had abused her as a teenager, andtrafficked her to powerful men, includingAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who hasrepeatedly deniedthe allegations against him.
Jennifer Connelly, a spokesperson for Ruemmler, said in a statement:“As Ms Ruemmler told the committee, she had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity by Epstein and there is not a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise.”
“Ms Ruemmler would never turn a blind eye to any criminal activity and if she had seen or heard anything to suggest that Epstein was harming women or girls, she would have taken action to stop it,” she added.
