<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Senior members of Terakeet, a reputation management firm, huddled in April 2024 to discuss what they could do for their new and potentially biggest client, Goldman Sachs, and its general counsel. She was suddenly the subject of unwanted publicity for her association with the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Terakeet’s chief executive and co-founder, Mac Cummings, described the counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, to the others at the meeting as a “friend of mine” and the “executive sponsor” of the Goldman Sachs account, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Mr. Cummings added with some hyperbole that Ms. Ruemmler, a former White House counsel in the Obama administration, was “the most accomplished, brilliant lawyer in the United States, possibly the world,” and that she “probably will be at some point a Supreme Court justice of the United States — she is cool, she is fun, she’s interesting.”</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">There was just one problem, Mr. Cummings said. After leaving the White House, Ms. Ruemmler had entered private practice and met with Mr. Epstein.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“She’s done nothing wrong,” Mr. Cummings told his subordinates. “But like the other thousands of people that met him over the course of the last 20 years, her name is on something, her name is in a news article, which isn’t really helpful when you’re trying to be in the C-suite of Goldman Sachs. So that’s probably an area that we’re going to zone in on.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="ImageBlock-3"><div data-testid="imageblock-wrapper"><figure aria-label="media" class="img-sz-medium css-d754w4 e1g7ppur0" role="group"><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0" data-testid="photoviewer-children-figure"><span class="kyt-mdd4r">Image</span><div class="css-nwd8t8" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="height:257.77777777777777px"></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-gbc9ki ewdxa0s0" data-testid="photoviewer-children-caption"><span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Ms. Ruemmler, right, in the Roosevelt Room with members of the Obama administration in 2014.</span><span class="css-iwa86d e1z0qqy90"><span class="kyt-mdd4r">Credit...</span><span><span aria-hidden="false">Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images</span></span></span></figcaption></figure></div></div><div data-testid="Optimistic-4"><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1b5b8u1" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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