US President Donald Trump’s Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned on Tuesday over allegations of misconduct, but said she’ll “vigorously defend” herself.
Trump’s administration said earlier Tuesday it had asked Guilfoyle to leave her post after she faced severe criticism over allegations she engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens.
The announcement, after days of comments and speculation, came in response to a question to freshly minted White House press secretary Katie Zacharia at her first media briefing Tuesday morning. Zacharia said Guilfoyle “has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.”
On Monday, Trump expressed his unhappiness at reports about her alleged conduct.
“Well, we’re looking at it,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he was considering firing Guilfoyle. “We’re not happy.”
Those comments came a day after the AP, citing a senior US official, reported that Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are “extremely pissed off.”
Since late September, the Wall Street Journal has detailed numerous accounts of questionable conduct by Guilfoyle. Its first report said that she had told guests at a reception that the United States could undermine the Greek government if it chose to, promoted the business interests of one particular Greek construction and energy company and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.
The Journal cited text messages that Guilfoyle had asked a Trump donor and supporter to pay a $100,000 credit card bill just before her confirmation hearing, promising him access to administration officials if he did.
Guilfoyle addressed the accusations directly in a post on X, saying, “These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity.”
“I have dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional,” she said. “I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”
In a statement released late Sunday, Guilfoyle’s lawyers denied she had done anything wrong and claimed that the money she was seeking from a Trump donor was payment for services — public appearances and speaking engagements that predate her ambassadorial nomination — that had not been paid.
The lawyers, David Schwartz and Jesse Binnall, also rejected allegations of impropriety related to Guilfoyle’s travel on private planes, saying that before every such trip she “sought, obtained and followed State Department guidance and followed the Department’s travel regulations.”
A US official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, told AP that the State Department’s inspector general was looking into the allegations, which first began surfacing in the Journal late last month and have since multiplied.
The official could not say if a formal IG probe had begun.
The top two Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, as well as the ranking member on the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif, have already called for an investigation into Guilfoyle.
In Greece, opposition parties had called on the Foreign Ministry to summon Guilfoyle to respond to the allegations made against her.
“This, most importantly, is an issue of national dignity,” Sia Anagnostopoulou, a former deputy foreign minister, said in parliament Friday.
Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis responded that Guilfoyle had been treated “the same way as every other ambassador” and argued that an official summons had not been necessary.
Guilfoyle is a former Fox News Channel host and California prosecutor who was married to Democrat Gavin Newsom when he was San Francisco’s mayor, before he became California’s governor. She later was engaged to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.
