William Burns, the current director of the CIA, met with Jeffrey Epstein three times in 2014 while he was still Obama’s deputy secretary of state and after Epstein had been found guilty of child sex exploitation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
According to a wealth of leaked documents that include Epstein’s calendars, which were not included in Epstein’s “black book” of contacts or travel logs, the two men initially met in Washington before Burns visited Epstein and his Manhattan apartment.
Mr. Burns, 67 years old, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, had meetings with Epstein in 2014 when Mr. Burns was deputy secretary of state.
A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show. After one of the scheduled meetings, Epstein planned for his driver to take Mr. Burns to the airport.
Mr. Burns recalls being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York, said Ms. Thorp. “The director does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport,” she said. -WSJ
Burns left his position at the State Department a month after his meeting with Epstein, in October 2014, to become head of the think group Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He oversaw it until early 2021, when Biden nominated him to be the CIA director.
Kathryn Ruemmler, who later rose to the position of chief legal counsel at Goldman Sachs in 2020, was another person with whom Epstein met on numerous occasions. Additionally, Epstein had planned for her to travel with him to Paris in 2015 and his private island in the Caribbean in 2017.
A representative for Goldman claims that Ruemmler did not accompany Epstein on his trip because of their “professional relationship,” which was based on her position at the law firm Latham & Watkins LLP.
“I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” she said.
But according to the records, they were sufficiently familiar with one another after Epstein was found guilty in 2006 of abusing girls as young as 14 in Florida.
He asked for avocado sushi rolls to be on hand when meeting with Ms. Ruemmler, according to the documents. He visited apartments she was considering buying. In October 2014, Epstein knew her travel plans and told an assistant to look into her flight. “See if there is a first class seat,” he wrote, “if so upgrade her.”
After Ruemmler left the Obama White House in 2014, Epstein immediately began organizing a lunch in August at his townhouse and a series of meetings to introduce her to his friends.
When Epstein called her to inquire about her potential in representing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—a relationship that never materialized—the two first spoke.
Epstein and his staff discussed whether Ms. Ruemmler, now 52, would be uncomfortable with the presence of young women who worked as assistants and staffers at the townhouse, the documents show. Women emailed Epstein on two occasions to ask if they should avoid the home while Ms. Ruemmler was there. Epstein told one of the women he didn’t want her around, and another that it wasn’t a problem, the documents show.
Ms. Ruemmler didn’t see anything that would lead her to be concerned at the townhouse and didn’t express any concern, the Goldman spokesman said. -WSJ
Ariane de Rothschild, the current CEO of the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild Group, was also introduced to Ruemmler by Epstein. According to the bank and the Goldman spokeswoman, Ruemmler’s legal company was retained by the bank to assist with US regulatory issues.
I have been asserting that Epstein was OBVIOUSLY not a major financier since well before his Florida arrest in 2006.
These leaders are meeting him years after his conviction and incarceration.
This thing appears just *impossibly* fake. I’m sorry. It seems fake. Just fake. https://t.co/vIyjwEshZx
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) April 30, 2023
De Rothschild, who married into the illustrious banking family, had more than a dozen meetings with Epstein.
In September 2013, Epstein asked Mrs. de Rothschild in an email for help finding a new assistant, “female…multilingual, organized.”
“I’ll ask around,” Mrs. de Rothschild emailed back.
She bought nearly $1 million worth of auction items on Epstein’s behalf in 2014 and 2015, the documents show.
Mrs. de Rothschild was named chairwoman of the bank in January 2015. That October, she and Epstein negotiated a $25 million contract for Epstein’s Southern Trust Co. to provide “risk analysis and the application and use of certain algorithms” for the bank, according to a proposal reviewed by the Journal.
In 2019, after Epstein was arrested, the bank said that Mrs. de Rothschild never met with Epstein and it had no business links with him. -WSJ
