Jeff Flake
Role at the time: Former Republican U.S. senator from Arizona and former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, in an interview on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360
Response to this claim
Eric Deters owes Kimberly Guilfoyle about $150,000 for speeches and consulting work she performed before her nomination as ambassador, and her request for payment was an effort to collect that debt.
“Well. it's not good. ... I just am floored that he'd have those kinds of messages telling somebody to not leave a paper trail when she's leaving a paper trail. So, this is just not good. ... Well, you just heard from the man who was supposed to have sent those invoices. So, yes, or she sent those invoices too, and he's claiming the opposite. So, I don't think that will go very far.”
CNN transcript of Anderson Cooper 360 hosted by John Berman. The Guilfoyle segment includes a clip of President Trump saying the administration was looking at her position, an interview with Eric Deters responding to her lawyers' statement, and an interview with former senator and ambassador Jeff Flake.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is Eric Deters's allegation that Kimberly Guilfoyle, shortly before her July 2025 Senate confirmation hearing, asked him to pay her $100,000 American Express bill while offering to help him reach senior Trump administration officials. Condemned: after hearing messages attributed to Guilfoyle about avoiding a paper trail, Flake says he is "floored" and that "this is just not good", and he doubts her lawyers' explanation. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional; it loses because he attaches no condition to his assessment.