WASHINGTON — A Trump political donor and retired lawyer sued Kimberly Guilfoyle and her lawyers for defamation based on their denials of his accusations that led to her resignation as U.S. ambassador to Greece.
Eric Deters, a contributor to President Donald Trump, said Guilfoyle pushed him to pay off her $100,000 American Express bill as she prepared for her Senate confirmation hearing last year. He sued her for defamation over her denial of his allegations.
The White House asked her to resign Tuesday, with Trump saying he “didn’t like what we were reading” about Guilfoyle, the one-time fiancée of Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.
Then-U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle attends the Oct. 7 opening session of the U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens.
Guilfoyle and her lawyers denied Deters’ accusations by saying text messages he provided reporters to document his accusations were fake, he was a “known blackmailer” and he owed her money.
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Deters alleged in his lawsuit filed Thursday in Kentucky state court that all three statements were false and defamatory. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
“The texts are not fake,” Deters said in his lawsuit. “I have never been accused of or charged with blackmail.”
Guilfoyle's lawyers alleged the lawsuit was frivolous. "The lawsuit is clearly frivolous on its face," attorney David Schwartz told USA Today.
A car enters the U.S. Ambassador's Residence on Wednesday in Athens, Greece, after Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned from her role as U.S. ambassador to the country.
Dana Mattioli was the first to write about Deters’ allegations in the Wall Street Journal, which published a story Oct. 7. Guilfoyle and her lawyers told Mattioli the texts were false and Deters was a “known blackmailer.”
Guilfoyle’s lawyers said Deters agreed to pay her $200,000 for speaking at Kentucky political events and he still owed her $150,000 when Trump nominated her to be the ambassador to Greece.
“Asking a client to pay for work already done is not corruption,” Schwartz and another lawyer representing Guilfoyle, Jesse Binnall, said in a statement Sunday. “It is the opposite of corruption.”
Deters included with the lawsuit an Oct. 1 email to Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr. and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles that asked for Trump to do him a “political favor.”
In the email, Deters asked for Trump to ask Warren Buffett, as chairman emeritus of investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, to have one of its subsidiaries, Medical Protective Insurance Co., pay $40 million to patients of one of its doctors wanted on charges of healthcare fraud.
Deters said he would drop his lawsuit if Trump extradited and investigated Dr. Atiq Durrani from Pakistan. Deters alleged Durrani “performed unnecessary spine surgeries” on 580 people at Cincinnati area hospitals.
Deters denied the request was extortion but said it was “hard ball.”
“This is not extortion,” he said in a statement accompanying the lawsuit. “Nothing I am asking for is illegal.”
