President Donald Trump's ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, faces calls for her removal after reportedly pulling a lobbyist into meetings with foreign officials.
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who was once engaged to Donald Trump Jr., was confirmed to the post last year. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that top lawmakers on the House and Senate foreign affairs panels have pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to examine her conduct. They cited a recent Journal investigation into her campaign to promote natural gas deals involving a Greek company across southeastern Europe.
"If these reports are accurate, Ambassador Guilfoyle is unfit to represent the United States abroad and should be removed from her position," Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) wrote in a Wednesday letter to Rubio.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who supported Guilfoyle's confirmation, sent her own letter Thursday. "Such actions do not serve U.S. credibility overseas and risk undermining U.S. diplomacy," she wrote.
The lawmakers want records of every meeting attended by Christos Marafatsos, a registered lobbyist for Aktor Group. Aktor's joint venture with a Greek state-backed energy firm signed a 20-year agreement last fall to buy American liquefied natural gas from Venture Global. They also asked about Guilfoyle's financial interests and her travel on private jets, including one flight covered by Aktor's chief executive. Former embassy staffers told The Journal that ambassadors rarely fly private and need explicit approval to do so.
The Journal previously reported that Guilfoyle clashed with Greece's energy minister at a March dinner in Athens. Referring to Romania's government, which was then nearing collapse, she allegedly said, "We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here." Her lawyer disputed that account, per The Journal. Romania's government fell in a no-confidence vote in May.
A U.S. Embassy official in Greece said Guilfoyle "continues to follow all State Department ethical guidelines" and that "any insinuation that she was operating outside of ethical guidelines are categorically false."
A lawyer for Aktor told The Journal, "The Ambassador has been consistently promoting U.S. interests."
