Kimberly Guilfoyle, the United States ambassador to Greece, reportedly asked a Trump donor to wire $100,000 to her American Express account just days before her Senate confirmation hearing — insisting the payment would leave no paper trail. The explosive account comes from a Wall Street Journal investigation published October 7, 2026, built on encrypted Signal messages reviewed by the paper.
"It Won't Show Up Anywhere"
According to the Journal, Guilfoyle messaged Eric Deters — a former Kentucky congressional candidate and suspended attorney who ran for governor in 2023 and for the US House in 2024 — on July 3, 2025, just six days before her July 9 confirmation hearing for the Athens post. She sent him a PDF with American Express bill-payment instructions and pleaded for him to get it done that day, messaging "Honey please" alongside her request. Her reassurance to Deters, as reported by the paper: wiring money directly to Amex would not "show up anywhere."
Deters refused, telling Guilfoyle the payment would end his marriage. He told the Journal he never sent the cash.
A $1 Million Offer and Lobbying for Deters
The Journal reports the exchange was part of a months-long back-and-forth. Deters had been seeking Guilfoyle's help in getting the Trump administration's attention on personal tax and legal matters, and offered up to $1 million if she succeeded. Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.'s former fiancee, agreed to press officials at the Justice Department and the IRS on his behalf — forwarding Deters the messages she sent to the new IRS chief — and worked to book him an interview with Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson.
Carlson told the Journal he had never heard of Deters, calling the arrangement "completely nuts." Deters separately told the paper he had previously paid Guilfoyle $300,000 for speaking appearances but grew frustrated at the lack of results; the IRS was examining a deduction Deters claimed in 2020 after selling his stake in his family business, which he believed was politically motivated.
Denials and Mounting Scrutiny
Guilfoyle's attorney, Jesse Binnall, challenged the authenticity of the messages but offered no specifics, the Journal reported, saying she was owed money for event appearances before her nomination. Deters countered that he owed her nothing. Guilfoyle had also warned Deters to keep money talk off the record — "Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things," she wrote, urging him to call her on Signal instead.
The episode lands amid existing scrutiny of the ambassador. Democratic lawmakers pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to examine her conduct, and New York Rep. Gregory Meeks said Guilfoyle would be "unfit to represent the United States abroad" if the accounts hold up. Democrats have requested a State Department review. The Senate confirmed Guilfoyle on September 18, 2025, and she took up the Athens post in November.
Authenticity dispute or not, the Journal's reporting places one of America's most high-profile ambassadors at the center of an ethics storm: a sitting envoy allegedly soliciting a five-figure payoff routed around disclosure while lobbying US agencies for the very man she asked. For a diplomat whose credibility rests on representing the United States abroad, the fallout may only be beginning.
Watch: YouTube coverage of the Kimberly Guilfoyle $100K Amex wire report
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Long Road Ahead B (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: The Wall Street Journal (original exclusive), The Daily Caller, TMZ, The Economic Times