Kimberly Guilfoyle asked a Trump donor to wire $100,000 to her American Express bill before her ambassador confirmation hearing, messages show

Political Guyentist · October 8, 20261 min read

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with Guilfoyle seated in front of him in Athens, called her "a strong ambassador."

Kimberly Guilfoyle, now U.S. ambassador to Greece, asked a Trump donor for $100,000 while preparing for her Senate confirmation hearing (the public questioning senators hold before voting on a nominee), according to messages the Wall Street Journal reviewed.

“It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express. Please.”Kimberly Guilfoyle, on Signal (an encrypted messaging app), per the Journal

The donor. The donor wrote that he had already paid her $300,000 over the years and “I need results.” She answered: “Stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous. Just call me on Signal.”

The access. The same messages show her offering him access to top administration officials.

Still open. The published excerpts do not show whether the requested money was sent, or what the donor's earlier payments bought.

What we’re less sure of7 of 8 claims

Medium
Kimberly Guilfoyle asked a Trump donor to wire $100,000 to her American Express bill while preparing for her Senate confirmation hearing as ambassador to Greece.
Attributed to messages the Wall Street Journal reviewed; a single original report (the X posts relay the same WSJ story), corroborated in identity of donor by the Daily Beast but the request itself rests on WSJ's review of messages.
Medium
Guilfoyle wrote on Signal: "It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express. Please."
Direct quote attributed to Guilfoyle via messages reviewed by the Journal; single-origin documentary source.
Medium
The donor wrote that he had paid Guilfoyle $300,000 over the years and "I need results," and she replied: "Stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous. Just call me on Signal."
Quoted exchange attributed to the messages the WSJ reviewed; the $300,000 figure is the donor's own claim within those messages, not independently verified.
Medium
The messages show Guilfoyle offering the donor access to top administration officials.
Characterization attributed to the WSJ's review of the messages (WSJ: Guilfoyle solicitation and access offers); the interpretation of 'access' is the Journal's.
Low
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with Guilfoyle seated in front of him in Athens, called her "a strong ambassador."
No source in the SOURCES list covers Rubio's Athens remarks; the quote, date and setting are unsourced in the story.
Medium
The Daily Beast identifies the donor as Eric Deters, a former congressional candidate from Kentucky.
Explicitly attributed to the Daily Beast; the WSJ excerpts as quoted do not name him, so identification rests on one outlet.
Medium
In 2019 a businessman's company paid about $23,000 toward Nadine Menendez's mortgage, part of the scheme that sent former Sen. Bob Menendez to prison for 11 years; this is 'the closest recent precedent.'
The payment and 11-year sentence are supported by the DOJ sentencing release (high on facts), but framing it as the 'closest recent precedent' is the desk's own unattributed comparison.