President Donald Trump is furious about the recent scandal involving his ex-possible daughter-in-law and ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Guilfoyle is dealing with the fallout of pay-to-play allegations from a Trump donor, Eric Deters, who claims she tried to shake him down to pay off her $100,000 American Express bill.
While Secretary of State Marco Rubio was claiming this week that he’d prefer to get the facts before commenting on the scandal, behind closed doors he and Trump are “extremely pi—ed off.”
Deters also revealed that he’d paid Guilfoyle approximately $300,000 over several years and sought her help reaching the Justice Department and IRS. He told the Journal that she “never came through on anything,” the report said.
The Guardian reported Sunday that a senior U.S. official “said that Rubio had grown increasingly frustrated as the reports multiplied.”
“Rubio had been particularly angry, not least because he visited Athens just last week and Guilfoyle attended most, if not all, of his events and greeted him on his arrival with a bear hug as the allegations swirled,” the report noted.
On Wednesday, he claimed, “Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here.”
A second U.S. official confirmed that the inspector general is looking into the allegations, which first surfaced last month before exploding across the Wall Street Journal’s pages.
Unfortunately for Guilfoyle, this wasn’t the first allegation of questionable conduct. The Journal first reported that she told guests at a reception that the U.S. could undermine the Greek government if it wanted to, including promoting some businesses over others. She also allowed lobbyists to join private diplomatic meetings.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reported that Guilfoyle had “alienated staff at the U.S. embassy in Athens” with inappropriate behavior.
The most recent scandal involved
House Oversight Democrats have already requested financial records and communications concerning the alleged pay-for-play arrangement. Though their requests are an investigative response to the reports, as none of the allegations have been proven yet.
When she left Fox, Guilfoyle faced another scandal around her inappropriate behavior. The New Yorker reported in Oct. 2020 that Fox paid a $ 4 million settlement to her assistant.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.) discovered that Guilfoyle was paid $60,000 for announcing Donald Trump Jr. during the Jan. 6, 2021 rally ahead of the Capitol attack. Turning Point Action ultimately paid the fee. Her comments were less than three minutes long.
Some still speculate about whether she’ll escape accountability, given how much she could know about the Trump family.