Eric Deters, the Kentucky businessman who says Kimberly Guilfoyle asked him to cover a $100,000 American Express debt, has told CBS News that the US ambassador to Greece should “lose her ambassadorship”. According to sources cited by the broadcaster, White House officials were told that the text messages between the two are authentic. Deters says the money was never sent.
What Deters told CBS News
Speaking to CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang on Thursday, Deters said he had “no doubt it was pay to play”. He alleges that Guilfoyle, the former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr, asked him to wire $100,000 to pay her American Express bill. He says this was in exchange for her help in dealing with the Trump administration, ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing.
“It was quid pro quo,” Deters said.
He said he never gave her the money. He explained that he did not have $100,000 to spare at the time, and that he otherwise would have been foolish enough to pay it. Deters said he made up an “excuse” that his wife would not agree to the payment.
The interview followed the publication in The Wall Street Journal of messages between the two dating from July 2025.
Authenticity of the messages
Sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that White House officials were informed the messages between Guilfoyle and Deters were authentic. According to the same sources, some aides to US President Donald Trump expressed displeasure at Guilfoyle’s actions.
The Wall Street Journal first reported this week that Guilfoyle allegedly contacted Deters days before her congressional hearing on her nomination as ambassador. According to that report, she told him she needed $100,000 to settle an American Express debt in a way that would not become publicly visible.
The July 2025 messages
“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” Guilfoyle wrote to Deters on 3 July 2025. The message appears in screenshots provided to CBS News. In the same exchange she said she had been officially announced and asked him to “get this done for me today”, adding a prayer-hands emoji. Her confirmation hearing took place on 9 July.
According to CBS News, she also sent him “American Express Instructions” as a PDF document.
CBS News says it reviewed the messages. Deters provided them as part of a 292-page file, which also contained:
- dozens of pages of grievances against figures in Trump’s circle
- communications with Guilfoyle and others
- photographs of Deters with Guilfoyle, President Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr
- a lengthy excerpt from a book Deters has written
Who is Eric Deters
Deters is a long-standing Trump supporter and a retired lawyer and businessman from Kentucky. In 2021 he was sanctioned by the Supreme Court of Ohio for the unauthorised practice of law. He has also run unsuccessfully for governor of Kentucky and for the US House of Representatives seat held by Thomas Massie.
The Durrani case
For years, Deters has sought media attention and political support for the extradition of orthopaedic spine surgeon Dr Abubakar Durrani. US authorities believe Durrani fled the country while awaiting trial on healthcare fraud charges. He was accused of billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers millions of dollars for unnecessary spinal surgeries that were potentially harmful to patients.
Deters now says he feels slighted that prominent figures in Trump’s circle never supported his extradition push. He said he emailed Susie Wiles, Donald Trump Jr and Guilfoyle, giving them until 5pm on a Monday to help with the Durrani victims. He said he warned them he would turn to the media if they did not. They did not respond, he said, adding that “they ignored me”.
Deters says he represents hundreds of Durrani’s former patients. CBS News reports that, based on the messages it reviewed, he may have believed he could benefit from Durrani’s extradition to the US. In one message to Trump Jr and to Drew Lynch, the producer of Guilfoyle’s podcast, he offered to pitch how a lot of money could be made from a small investment in the Durrani matter.
Deters no longer practises law. He once stood to gain financially if he succeeded in suing Durrani.
Influence and requests for discretion
Shortly before taking office in 2025, and soon after Guilfoyle and Trump Jr ended their engagement, Trump announced he intended to nominate her as US ambassador to Greece. Deters, however, says her influence declined after the relationship ended.
“There was no question that she would do anything for me,” he said. “The problem was, she was on the outs of the Trump world.”
Deters claimed Guilfoyle knew there was something improper about the request. He said she kept getting angry with him for putting things in writing. He said she wanted him to use Signal, which he did not know at the time.
In late June 2025, she wrote to him: “Eric, I really wish you would stop papering these things. It’s really dangerous.” She added that he could simply call her on Signal instead.
Deters had just sent her a memo complaining that she had not delivered on his requests, including a booking on Tucker Carlson’s podcast. In the memo he said he had offered her $1 million once the Durrani case settled if she got him onto Carlson’s show. He also complained that a concise summary he had prepared for then Attorney General Pam Bondi had produced nothing concrete.
“I am not naive or a sucker. I need results,” he wrote in another memo. He added that without results, there was no reason for him to pay.
Alleged payments to the Trump circle
Deters claimed he has made payments to Guilfoyle and members of the Trump family in the past.
“I paid her a total of $300,000,” he said.
He also said he had paid:
- Donald Trump Jr $200,000 for two appearances
- Eric Trump $100,000
- President Trump’s political action committee (PAC) $125,000
- $100,000 to attend the Kentucky Derby with Trump
Deters said he never owed money to Guilfoyle or anyone else in the president’s circle.
According to documents he shared with CBS News, Deters says the $300,000 he paid Guilfoyle was for appearance fees.
Relationship and next steps
Deters insisted his relationship with Guilfoyle was purely political. “Kimberly Guilfoyle and I have absolutely zero personal relationship, nada,” he told CBS News.
He said he now wants to draw attention to Dr Durrani’s victims, and to see Guilfoyle removed from her post as US ambassador.
This is a developing story.
With information from CBS News
