WASHINGTON — Six days before her Senate confirmation hearing, Kimberly Guilfoyle allegedly sent a wealthy Kentucky supporter a link to American Express payment instructions. “Honey please I need you to get this done for me today,” she wrote, according to messages reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reported on Wednesday that Guilfoyle, now the US ambassador to Greece, asked Eric Deters to pay $100,000 toward her American Express balance in July 2025. “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she allegedly wrote on the encrypted messaging app Signal, The Hill reported, citing the Journal.
Deters, a suspended lawyer and former congressional candidate, says he refused. “I can’t do this without getting a divorce,” he replied, according to the messages. He told the Journal he had sought Guilfoyle’s help with personal tax and legal matters and had discussed payments of as much as $1 million if she reached the right people in the Trump administration. In a June 2025 memo, he complained that he had paid her $300,000 over the years and “not received one favor.”
Guilfoyle disputes the account. Her lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told the Journal that she questions the authenticity of the messages, without saying which ones. He said any payments from Deters were for appearances at events before her nomination and that she “was owed a balance for traveling to and supporting these patriotic events.” Deters denies owing her anything.
Other messages suggest she worried about a paper trail. “Stop papering all these things. It’s really dangerous,” she allegedly wrote. In January 2025, after Deters mentioned money to a producer on her podcast, she reportedly told him: “What a nightmare you’ll literally cost me my ambassadorship stop writing.”
Deters went further on Thursday. On ABC’s Good Morning America, he called the arrangement “quid pro quo” and said Guilfoyle had offered to be his “ride or die in the Trump world” if he paid. Those are his claims, and no official body has made any finding of misconduct.
The reaction inside the administration was muted. Vice President JD Vance said he took issue with anyone seeking money in exchange for access. “I don’t love that,” he said, CNN reported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, travelling in Greece, told reporters he did not know if the allegations were “true or not true.” Last week, after a separate Journal investigation, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees asked the US State Department to review her conduct.
Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor and Fox News host, was formerly engaged to Donald Trump Jr., who married Bettina Anderson in May. CNN said it had reached out to Guilfoyle for comment.
