Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday asked U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle for financial information and communications with Trump administration officials after allegations she engaged in a pay-to-play scheme.
The letter, sent to Guilfoyle by committee member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and first obtained by PBS News, came a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that she had requested money from a donor in exchange for official acts.
LEARN MORE: The report alleges that Ambassador Guilfoyle improperly asked a donor to pay his credit card bill. Rubio refuses to comment
According to the report, Guilfoyle demanded $100,000 from a supporter of President Donald Trump to pay his credit card bill before his confirmation hearing. Guilfoyle — the former fiancée of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. — and donor Eric Deters reportedly spoke for months as she promised him access to the administration. He agreed to pay up to $1 million in exchange if she was successful, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Deters told the Wall Street Journal that he asked Guilfoyle to help connect him with the Trump Justice Department and the IRS. However, Guilfoyle “never achieved anything,” said the lawyer and business owner, who paid him $300,000 over the years.
Guilfoyle’s lawyer told the Wall Street Journal that the ambassador was paid to speak at events leading up to her appointment and disputed the authenticity of her messages with Deters.
In his letter Thursday, Garcia said Deters’ assertion that Guilfoyle did this with other donors raised “concerns about a culture of impunity” within the U.S. Embassy in Athens.
“This alleged misconduct raises serious public corruption and national security concerns,” Garcia said in the letter. “If Trump administration officials can be bribed by donors, the American people will suffer the consequences of corrupt leaders more concerned with their own enrichment than the public good and vulnerable to blackmail by foreign intelligence services.”
Read the full letter by clicking on the image below.
Garcia set an Oct. 22 deadline for Guilfoyle to turn over a number of documents related to the allegations, including all personal financial records, as well as two years of communications with Deter and members of the Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised Guilfoyle during a news conference in Greece on Thursday after being asked about Congressional scrutiny of his tenure.
“Suffice it to say, our embassy here is doing a great job. Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here,” Rubio said.
WATCH: Rubio urges Europe to defend Western values and strengthen the US alliance in Greece
He declined to comment on the Wall Street Journal’s reports.
“I don’t even know if what you’re saying is true,” Rubio told reporters before leaving Greece. “You walk around thinking that because a source told you something and you reported it, that’s the gospel. That’s not the gospel. That’s not the gospel to me. That’s not how we do things.”
Top Democrats on the House and Senate Foreign Affairs committees sent letters to Rubio last week calling for an investigation into reports that Guilfoyle acted inappropriately in her role as ambassador.
The letters cite an earlier Wall Street Journal article that details Guilfoyle’s involvement with a lobbyist for a Greek construction and energy company whom she allowed to attend meetings with foreign officials.
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