Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle may face a Senate probe after reports she sought a donor’s help with a $100,000 credit card bill, a claim Senate leaders call troubling.
Fox News Digital reported that U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle could soon draw a Senate investigation after a Wall Street Journal account accused her of influence peddling tied to personal debt.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., addressed the matter on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” He did not soft-pedal what he had seen in the coverage.
“What we’ve seen in the reports is very troubling, it’s concerning,” Barrasso said. “And I’m sure there’s gonna be an investigation.”
"I would assume the State Department would be conducting that. I know the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will have oversight and look into that, as well. But I think the public has a right to know what was found, and it is quite a bit of concern."
The Washington Examiner likewise noted Barrasso’s prediction of an inquiry amid a string of ethics reports and White House tension over the ambassador’s conduct.
The Journal report described conduct before Guilfoyle’s confirmation. It said she pressed a top Trump donor, Eric Deters, to clear roughly $100,000 in personal American Express charges.
The account said she asked that the payment go straight to the card and urged that no paper trail be left. In return, she allegedly offered help gaining access to top administration officials. Deters said he never made the payment.
That alleged trade, personal debt relief for political access, is the core charge now drawing Senate attention. It is also the kind of arrangement that invites formal review under normal ethics rules.
Related coverage has already tracked how Rubio declined to discuss the Journal’s $100,000 claim in public detail while the story spread.
Guilfoyle was confirmed by the Senate last year for the Athens post. She had been engaged to Donald Trump Jr. until a public split in 2024. None of that history erases the need for clean lines between private favors and public office.
The State Department’s Office of Inspector General had already opened a probe into Guilfoyle over earlier alleged misconduct. That review was underway before the latest credit-card reporting landed.
Separate Daily Mail reporting described an inquiry into her lifestyle in Greece. Those accounts included claims of staff mistreatment, substance abuse, close ties to an energy and construction company, and improper acceptance of gifts. Those remain allegations carried in that coverage, not adjudicated findings.
Readers following the Athens post have also seen earlier reporting on a recording about Greek tycoons and Davos travel that raised parallel ethics questions.
Fox News Digital sought comment from the State Department and from Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. No on-record replies from those outreach efforts were included in the available account.
The Associated Press reported Sunday, citing a senior U.S. official, that President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were “extremely p****d off” by the alleged conduct and were weighing Guilfoyle’s removal.
That posture matches a basic standard: ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, and serious ethics clouds are not a private matter. Prior pieces have laid out how Trump and Rubio have considered firing Guilfoyle while the claims piled up.
Shortly after the Journal story, Rubio pushed back on the press treatment of anonymous sourcing. He rejected the idea that a single report settles the truth.
"You guys walk around thinking that because some source told you something, and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel. It’s not the gospel for me. That’s not the way we do things."
Rubio’s point was process, not a blanket defense of every charge. Investigations exist precisely so claims can be tested against records, witnesses, and documents rather than headlines alone.
Additional reporting has described how Trump has weighed ousting Guilfoyle over pay-to-play and staff claims while the inspector general work continues.
Barrasso sketched two tracks. He assumed the State Department would run an internal look. He also said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would exercise oversight and examine what turns up.
That committee lane matters. Ambassadors are confirmed by the Senate. When confirmation-era conduct later appears to involve donor access or personal debt relief, the same body that advised and consented has a duty to revisit the record.
Democrats have pressed their own calls for review of the Greece posting, including efforts described in coverage of a State Department review push over Guilfoyle’s Greek dealings. Partisan noise does not cancel the underlying ethics test.
What remains unsettled is outcome. The inspector general probe’s status is not detailed in the reporting. Removal is described as under consideration, not decided. Deters’ account is that no $100,000 payment was made. Those open points belong in any fair summary.
Even so, the sequence is clear enough for oversight: a pre-confirmation debt ask reported by the Journal, an existing State watchdog file, lifestyle and gift allegations in other coverage, a senior official’s description of anger at the top, and a Senate whip saying an investigation is coming.
Public office is not a loyalty club. When reports allege a donor was asked to erase six-figure personal debt for access, the public has every right to a full accounting, and the people who hold power have every duty to deliver one.
