A former MAGA donor has vowed to sue U.S. ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after her legal team claimed the $100,000 she requested from him to pay off her American Express card was actually for unpaid fees he owed.
Guilfoyle asked Eric Deters, a Kentucky attorney and former congressional candidate, to send her the money just days before her confirmation hearing in July 2025. The heat is now on the ambassador as President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio consider whether to fire her over the scandal.
“Honey please I need you to get this done for me today,” she texted Deters via Signal on July 3, adding a praying emoji and a PDF containing payment instructions from Amex, according to the messages, first published by The Wall Street Journal. “You could just send it here. It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express that’s all that will show. Please.”
Guilfoyle’s attorneys have claimed that she was owed $150,000 in unpaid fees for consulting work and previous speaking engagements, which Deters furiously denied on Monday to CNN’s John Berman.
“I’m going to be suing those lawyers, that law firm, and Kimberly Guilfoyle here in Kentucky,” Deters said. “It’s gonna be fun.”
Guilfoyle’s lawyers initially disputed the authenticity of the messages to the Journal, but did not offer specifics.
Deters, who did not give Guilfoyle the money, told CNN that he believes he has a defamation case against the ambassador.
“They first said that the text messages were fake — defamation,” he began. “Then they said I was a known blackmailer. I’ve never blackmailed anybody in my life. Defamation. Now, they’re claiming that there are invoices when she knows that’s not true.”
“In all the text messages, she doesn’t mention anything about me owing money,” Deters continued. “What she talks about is papering this. So, what she asked me to do was make up that I owed her money and write her a letter, and I did that for her. She knows that is phony, and I’m gonna be suing them all for defamation.”
Berman asked Deters whether he owed Guilfoyle any money.
“I do not owe any money from Ambassador Guilfoyle, and that’s why I’m gonna sue ’em for defamation,” Deters said.
Guilfoyle was engaged to the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., until they split in late 2024.
She has not directly addressed the reports, but her legal team issued a statement late Sunday denying any wrongdoing.
According to a senior U.S. official speaking on Sunday, both Trump and Rubio are “extremely pissed off” by the reported misconduct and are expected to decide her future this week.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss internal deliberations, said Rubio was particularly incensed. His anger was heightened by the fact that he visited Athens just last week, when Guilfoyle welcomed him with a bear hug and participated in most, if not all, of his scheduled public events while the allegations were circulating.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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