Texts Show Kimberly Guilfoyle Asking MAGA Donor for Money and Offering Him Access to Trump Officials

Mortgage rates approach nearly 7.5%, but it's not all bad news for people looking to buy. Plus, Russia targets Ukraine's cities, with more than 50 people dying in the past two days. I think Ukraine's population is braced for a terrible winter. It expects pain and suffering. And we get into the journal's exclusive reporting on how Kimberly Guilfoyle asked a MAGA donor to pay her $100,000 American Express bill. She sends him a PDF that's labeled American Express instructions. And she says, you could just send it here. It won't show up anywhere. If you wire money to American Express, that's all it will show. It's Thursday, October 8th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. There's a new estimate of the U.S. deficit out today from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. The U.S. she starts asking him for this $100,000. It starts out that she's saying, can you write me an invoice that phrases this as a back payment in two $50,000 installments, which he does. And then the texts really ramp up in the days before her confirmation hearing. And she says, honey, please, I need you to get this done for me today. He does not end up making the payment to her because he says it will cost him his marriage. What does Dieter say came out of these exchanges? Did he get what he was looking for? No, he's ultimately very frustrated with his interactions with Guilfoyle because he feels she sort of strings him along and then she doesn't actually get him results on these issues. What is Guilfoyle's response? I mean, what does she say about her relationship with Dieter's and their exchanges? So we heard from her lawyer on this. So her lawyer, Jesse Binnell, said that the ambassador disputed the authenticity of the messages, but he didn't provide specifics on which messages. He also said that she had been paid to speak at events before her nomination and that she was owed a balance for traveling to and supporting these events. That's something Dieter's disputes. He says he didn't owe Guilfoyle any money. And then the other quote from the lawyer that I thought was pretty striking is that he says, quote, Ambassador Guilfoyle will never apologize for offering to help shed light on a case in which a thousand children underwent unnecessary invasive and debilitating surgeries at Batman's hands. And that's a reference to this Ohio doctor case. So they're essentially acknowledging that she did offer her services to help on that case. So this story comes out and I'm curious what the reaction has been to your report. And I'm curious what your response has been to this. I'm curious what your response has been to your reporting. Have we heard from the White House about what they make of all this? We heard from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who notably was in Athens when the story published. He was on the tarmac this morning leaving Athens. Guilfoyle was there to see him off. And he kind of declined to engage in the story. We also heard from J.D. Vance, who declined to engage on the specifics. He said as a hypothetical that this sort of conduct didn't sound good, but that he needed to understand more about the story to weigh in. And you also had another story come out late last month about Guilfoyle, right? Our story last month talked about how her promotion of a Greek company had puzzled foreign officials around southeastern Europe. It also focused on her relationship with a lobbyist for that company who has attended so many meetings with her that some foreign officials have mistaken him for her chief of staff. He often doesn't disclose his role as a corporate lobbyist. People view him as a very close advisor. He's a very close associate. He's a very close advisor to her. And that's, you know, a very unusual role for a private citizen to be playing with an ambassador. So last week, the top Democrats on the Senate and House Foreign Affairs committees wrote to Rubio and requested the State Department review her conduct. So certainly our sense is that she is under much greater scrutiny from the White House and from the State Department than she had been previously. That was Journal reporter Rebecca Ballhouse. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you. And we should note that a U.S. embassy official told the Journal that Guilfoyle has been promoting American interests, like increasing sales of U.S. gas to European partners and decreasing European dependence on Russian gas, and that the embassy said Guilfoyle remains committed to representing the American people with dedication and integrity. And finally, today, Canadian poet Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Committee praised Carson for her distinctive style that mixes classical scholarship and contemporary literature. The Nobel Prize winner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born in Toronto in 1950 and trained as a classicist. Her work often reimagines ancient Greek mythology and philosophy through a personal, contemporary feminist lens. Poverty is a scapegoat. We drive them out. Hermes, I shiver like crazy. Give Hipponax a cloak. Don't look it in the eyes. We forbid you asking, in God's name, for bread. That's Carson reading from her poem Poverty Remix, a Sestina. She was in Iceland when she learned of her award today, and she said she was, quote, listening to the wind. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi with supervising producer Tali Arbell. I'm Alex Osela for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. Thank you.