She worked as a federal prosecutor from 2001 to 2007, first as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia,[7] and finishing as a deputy director of DOJ's Enron Task Force.

Lay's conviction was overturned on October 17, 2006 due to abatement ab initio, a legal doctrine which says the death of a defendant during an appeal results in a vacated judgment.

Ruemmler returned to Latham in Washington, D.C., in 2007, this time as a partner, but left in January 2009 to be principal associate deputy attorney general at the Justice Department.

[8] While she was employed as a partner at Latham and Watkins, Ruemmler met with Jeffrey Epstein on dozens of occasions including lunches and dinners between her time in the White House and her subsequent hiring at Goldman Sachs, according to his schedule, The Wall Street Journal reported.

She was also on his schedule for a flight to Paris in 2015, as well as a stop at his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017; she said these trips did not take place and The Wall Street Journal could not confirm that they or other meetings ultimately happened.

Counsel Ruemmler asserted that the appointments were valid, because the pro forma sessions were designed to, "through form, render a constitutional power of the executive obsolete," and that the Senate was for all intents and purposes recessed.

In this context, the President therefore has discretion to conclude that the Senate is unavailable to perform its advise-and-consent function and to exercise his power to make recess appointments.

[22][23] She withdrew from consideration the following month, amid speculation that she would have faced a "difficult confirmation process" because of her close friendship with President Obama.