Good morning. When Kathryn Ruemmler, a top Washington lawyer with an elite pedigree, joined Goldman Sachs in 2020, she disclosed to top executives a connection that didn’t appear on her LinkedIn page: Jeffrey Epstein. But it’s what Goldman didn’t know about her association with the notorious sex offender—details that have become public in the stream of documents released from Epstein’s estate—that now looms over Ruemmler and the bank.

• Their relationship: Ruemmler told Goldman’s leaders when they hired her that she had business dealings with Epstein when she was a white-collar defense attorney at Latham & Watkins. It would later become public that she met with Epstein dozens of times and exchanged friendly emails for years. It turned out she was in the courtroom when Epstein was arraigned after his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, and Epstein had listed her as one of the executors on his will as recently as Jan. 18, 2019. Epstein removed her name before he died on Aug. 10, 2019, while he was in prison awaiting trial.
   
• Contingency plan: The extent of their relationship has drawn scrutiny inside Goldman Sachs, where the 54-year-old lawyer is general counsel and a top adviser to CEO David Solomon. John Rogers, the powerful Goldman executive who brought Ruemmler into the bank, recently told a few close associates he was formulating a contingency plan in which she would leave later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The idea would be to give Ruemmler as graceful an exit as possible by distancing it from the Epstein revelations. In a statement, Rogers said: “That is completely untrue.” 
   
• CEO response: “Kathy is an excellent general counsel and we benefit from her advice every day,” Solomon said in a statement. “Kathy has always had the support of the entire leadership team and the Board and is widely respected and admired at the firm.” Solomon hasn’t been involved with the plan, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
   
• Ruemmler’s response: In a statement, Ruemmler told the Journal that she had a professional association with Epstein when “it was my job to engage with people and companies that had serious legal and public relations problems. Many were under criminal investigation, and many had been convicted of crimes.” She said she didn’t represent Epstein or advocate on his behalf. Epstein referred clients to her and he “also informally reached out to me for advice from time to time just as he did with numerous other prominent lawyers throughout the country,” she said. “As I have said, I regret ever knowing him, and I have enormous sympathy for the victims of Epstein’s crimes.”

Justice Department reports record $6.8 billion False Claims Act recoveries. 

The Justice Department said its primary tool for fighting corporate fraud brought in a record-breaking haul last year, despite the law’s constitutionality continuing to face major legal battles, reports Risk Journal’s Mengqi Sun. 

Settled judgments and recoveries imposed under the False Claims Act reached $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, which ended on Sept. 30, the Justice Department said Friday. That amount was the highest annual total in the history of the statute and marks a surge in activity, with whistleblowers filing a record 1,297 qui tam lawsuits, or actions brought by private citizens on behalf of the government. The department said more than $5.3 billion of the total recovered amount was tied to cases initiated by whistleblowers.

• EDO, a data, measurement and analytics software company co-founded by actor Edward Norton, was ordered to pay $18.3 million to ad-measurement firm iSpot following a lawsuit by iSpot alleging EDO breached its contract, among other accusations.
   
• U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said he might push for reimposing of Caesar Act sanctions on Syria if government forces continue their military offensive against the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Raqqa, warning of permanent damage to relations with Washington, Risk Journal reports.

Oxford Analytica’s Laura James discusses the risks arising from a regime weakened even further than it has been in recent years. Also, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business’s Clara Hudson explains the chilling effect on renewable energy projects stemming from the Trump administration’s attempts to halt offshore wind construction. James Rundle hosts.

You can listen to new episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.

U.S. to press ahead with EU trade deal despite opposition, Bessent says.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects to go ahead with the U.S.’s trade deal with the European Union, despite some EU lawmakers saying they might hold up the agreement over President Trump’s comments over Greenland.

“We’re in the midst of completing a very good trade deal for both sides, so the plan is to go ahead with the trade deal,” Bessent said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Some European lawmakers have said they might put the implementation of the trade deal on hold after President Trump’s threat over the weekend of additional tariffs on eight European nations that didn’t agree with his desire to acquire the Arctic territory.

See also: 

• Trump’s Greenland Strategy Draws From Familiar Playbook
• Greenland Clash Risks Undermining America’s Place in World Economic Order
• Trump’s Threats to Allies Stir Worry That U.S. Has Lost Its Way
• 3M Says Trump’s Tariff Threats Over Greenland Could Dent 2026 Earnings
• Greenland Rift Makes NATO Vulnerable to Russia, Says Senior German General
• Tensions Over Greenland Rattle Wall Street

Supreme Court will decide if Fed independence has any legal teeth.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday over whether President Trump can fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook—a case about far more than one official’s job.

It will test whether the court’s conservative majority, which has spent years eroding the independence of regulatory agencies, is willing to make an exception for the institution that controls interest rates, inflation and the stability of the global financial system.

See also: 

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Turns Up the Heat on Fed’s Jerome Powell
• Democratic Senators Demand Records on Powell Probe

Explore The Wall Street Journal: From Headlines to Action

Join us for a deep dive into the challenges that CFOs and other top executives are seeking to overcome, including the impact of tariffs and geopolitical conflicts on corporate finance and private equity. Click here to watch. 

• The Justice Department on Tuesday sent subpoenas to Gov. Tim Walz and five other Democratic officials in Minnesota, escalating an investigation into whether they sought to obstruct the Trump administration’s immigration operation in the Twin Cities, people familiar with the probe said.
   
• The Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that it was likely to strike down a Hawaii law that bans guns from being carried into supermarkets, gas stations and other public-facing locations without the property owner’s permission.
   
• Mexico’s government said it transferred 37 people with alleged ties to drug cartels to U.S. authorities, the latest handover as pressure from the Trump administration mounts to intensify the fight against drug-smuggling organizations.
   
• Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix said Tuesday that they struck a new all-cash deal for Netflix to buy Warner’s studios and HBO Max streaming business. Warner also released financial details on the cable-networks business it plans to spin off.
   
• President Trump’s Truth Social account—a collection of posts ranging from endorsements and memes to political attacks and congratulations—is more than just a stream of the commander in chief’s unfiltered thinking. It is also a ledger of promises that can be checked to better understand whether he is following through on his directives and threats.

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