Eric Deters, the suspended Northern Kentucky attorney who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2023 and for the U.S. House in 2024, was asked by Kimberly Guilfoyle to help pay her credit card debt before she became U.S. ambassador to Greece, according to an exclusive report published Oct. 7 in The Wall Street Journal.
Guilfoyle, in text messages obtained by the Journal, asked Deters to pay $100,000 toward her American Express bill before her Senate confirmation hearing last year. Deters told the Journal he had been seeking Guilfoyle’s help with tax and legal matters and had discussed potential payments if she helped him reach Trump administration officials.
“Honey please I need you to get this done for me today,” she texted Deters, according to the
Journal.
Deters told the Journal he did not make the American Express payment.
Guilfoyle’s lawyer said she disputed the authenticity of the messages, adding that Guilfoyle was owed money for prior event appearances. Democrats have requested a State Department review.
An email The Enquirer sent to Deters on Wednesday evening asking whether he disputed anything in The Wall Street Journal article was not immediately answered.
Who is Eric Deters?
Deters, a controversial figure in Kentucky politics, was most recently in the news for canceling Freedom Fest, a Labor Day weekend political rally and concert he was planning at his farm near Walton, Kentucky. Deters said he was unable to sell enough VIP tickets for the event, which in past years featured Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Candace Owens and other MAGA personalities.
In 2019, Deters was ordered to serve 15 days in jail after a judge said he violated a gag order relating to lawsuits filed against Dr. Abubaker Atiq Durrani, a spine surgeon accused of performing unnecessary surgeries at local hospitals. Deters was released from the Hamilton County jail after serving eight days.
While running for Kentucky governor in the 2023 Republican primary, Deters pleaded guilty to charges related to a truck chase that occurred after a teenage nephew flipped him off near his family farm. The Kenton County Attorney's Office said Deters pleaded guilty to two counts of harassing communications and one count of menacing, all misdemeanors.
In June, The Enquirer reported that Deters assisted federal agents pursuing charges against doctors suspected of overprescribing opioid pain medication. Deters supplied investigators with patient information while launching lawsuits against one of the doctors, according to interviews and records obtained by The Enquirer. The arrangement blurred the lines between law enforcement and civil litigation during the federal crackdown on opioid prescription practices.
Deters, who calls himself “the bulldog” on social media, first had his law license suspended in 2012. He retired from practicing law in Ohio in 2014. In refusing to reinstate him in June 2021, the Kentucky Supreme Court said he had a “notorious propensity” for filing malicious and frivolous lawsuits.
The Enquirer will update this story.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Report claims Guilfoyle asked Eric Deters to pay her credit card bill
