Eric Deters, the Trump donor whose text message allegations forced Kimberly Guilfoyle out of her post as U.S. Ambassador...

Eric Deters, the Trump donor whose text message allegations forced Kimberly Guilfoyle out of her post as U.S. Ambassador to Greece, filed a defamation lawsuit against her and two of her attorneys in Kentucky's Kenton Circuit Court on Thursday, October 15. The lawsuit accuses Guilfoyle and attorneys Jesse Binnall and David M. Schwartz of defamation and false-light invasion of privacy, and includes a breach-of-contract claim against Guilfoyle directly. Deters is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and has requested a jury trial. The case centers on Deters's claim that Guilfoyle's legal team told the Wall Street Journal he was a "known blackmailer" and that the text messages he provided were fake. "The texts are not fake. I have never been accused of or charged with blackmail," Deters wrote in the lawsuit. Guilfoyle's attorney called the suit "clearly frivolous." The original scandal broke on October 8 when the Journal reported that Guilfoyle sent Deters a Signal message in July 2025, shortly before her Senate confirmation hearing, asking him to pay $100,000 toward her American Express bill. Deters says he refused. Guilfoyle's team says the money represented an unpaid balance for legitimate work she performed at his Freedom Fest events, where he says he paid her roughly $300,000 over several years. The White House asked Guilfoyle to resign on Tuesday, October 13. She announced her resignation the same day, calling her ambassadorship "the honor of a lifetime" and vowing to fight the allegations she described as false. Hours after filing suit, Deters posted a video on Facebook promising to release a 16-minute phone recording from a conversation he says originated in Greece. He called it "the most explosive, most devastating information about Kimberly Guilfoyle to date" and claimed it "might just bring down the entire Trump administration" and "may end the JD Vance/Marco Rubio ticket." The recording had not been released at time of reporting, and Deters has not publicly substantiated those claims. #KimberlyGuilfoyle #TrumpAdministration #Greece