Kimberly Guilfoyle on Tuesday said she is stepping down as U.S. ambassador to Greece after the White House announced it had asked her to resign following allegations of misconduct during her tenure as Athens envoy and before her confirmation.

President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, announced the request during her first briefing.

“We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign,” Zacharia said when a reporter asked about Trump’s comments on Monday that he is considering firing her. “She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.”

Guilfoyle posted a goodbye statement on her X account later Tuesday.

“Serving as the United States Ambassador to Greece has been the honor of a lifetime,” Guilfoyle wrote. “I will forever be grateful to President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for entrusting me with the extraordinary privilege of representing the greatest country in the history of the world.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

Guilfoyle, the former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., faced scrutiny after The Wall Street Journal reported in September about her “persistent promotion” of a Greek energy company as part of a U.S. push to create a “vertical gas corridor” that routes American natural gas from Greece to Ukraine. The Journal reported that Guilfoyle has close ties to a lobbyist for the company, who often accompanies her to high-level energy meetings without disclosing his ties to the firm.

A lawyer for Guilfoyle said she “worked with companies across the energy sector” and was not focused on any one company. In a statement from the White House in response to the Journal’s reporting, Rubio called Guilfoyle an “incredibly effective advocate for the President’s agenda.” Lawyers for the energy company also denied that Guilfoyle improperly promoted them.

While departing the White House on Tuesday for Alaska, Trump attempted to create distance between Guilfoyle and his family when a reporter suggested she was “almost a member of your family.”

“No, she wasn’t a member of my family,” the president said. “She, I guess, dated my son a long time ago, but she wasn’t. No, she went to Greece. She was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading.”

The Journal also reported that before her confirmation, Guilfoyle struck a deal with Eric Deters, a failed Republican congressional candidate, to give him access to Trump administration officials in exchange for money. As part of that deal, Guilfoyle reportedly pleaded with Deters to wire $100,000 to help pay down some of her debt before her confirmation hearing.

Her lawyer told the Journal that she had accepted paid speaking gigs prior to her nomination and “was owed a balance for traveling to and supporting these patriotic events.” Deters denied that he owed Guilfoyle any money.

A third report from the newspaper alleged Guilfoyle boasted about her ties to a pair of Greek tycoons while trying to score an invite to a private dinner being held for Eric Trump at the World Economic Forum. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Athens said the ambassador followed the State Department’s guidelines for ethics and reporting gifts.

Asked whether she would launch her own investigation into Guilfoyle’s conduct, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia told reporters on Tuesday that she was waiting to see what the State Department’s internal watchdog found.

“I think right now that there is an inspector general investigation in the Department of State,” Pirro said. “We’ll probably wait to see what comes, what happens with that.”

In her statement Tuesday, Guilfoyle called the recent allegations against her “false” and said she intends to “vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity.”

“I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service,” she wrote.

The reports put a spotlight on Guilfoyle’s actions as a powerful diplomat in a region of Europe where countries are keen on establishing themselves with the Trump administration.

Guilfoyle’s path to ambassadorship was unusual. She was nominated as ambassador shortly after Donald Trump Jr. was first spotted publicly with socialite Bettina Anderson, whom he eventually married.

She and Trump Jr. had entered a relationship during the president’s first term, and they were engaged in 2020. A fierce advocate for the president, Guilfoyle also launched several business ventures in recent years, most of which appear to no longer exist.

And she is no stranger to controversy. Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor, was married to now-California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2000s. She worked at Fox News for more than a decade before abruptly departing in 2018. The New Yorker reported that a former assistant had accused her of sexual harassment and that she then attempted to silence the assistant with money as an investigation was underway. Guilfoyle has denied the allegations.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Julianne McShane contributed to this report.

The post Kimberly Guilfoyle resigns at Trump’s request following allegations of misconduct appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.