FBI Arrests OpenAI Employee Over Alleged Spying

Headline USA Editor
-
0
FBI Arrests OpenAI Employee Over Alleged Spying

(Headline USA) An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials said Tuesday was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company’s technology.

The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested Friday, a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered an audio recording device hidden inside a company conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco.

The complaint did not identify the company, but the company confirmed in a separate statement that it had discovered a “sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices,” reported the finding to the FBI and fired the employee.

“We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated,” the statement said.

The complaint does not detail what Alfozan might have wanted to do with any captured communications, but the company said the device was sophisticated, designed to evade detection and featured advanced encryption and audio monitoring capabilities. OpenAI said it had evidence the employee planned to place other listening devices throughout other parts of the office building for the purpose of recording meetings.

“This alleged attempt by a Saudi national to steal sensitive communications from OpenAI was taken extremely seriously. Theft of intellectual property involving cutting-edge super intelligence technology poses a serious threat to our national security,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X.

Alfozan made his first court appearance Tuesday on a charge of using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. He is due back in court on Oct. 19.

The recording device was found September 30 concealed in toilet paper and inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room, according to the complaint.

Though the conference room where the recording device was found did not have a security camera at the time the object was installed, closed-circuit television footage inside the company’s offices revealed that Alfozan was near the conference room on nearly a dozen occasions last month despite not having any authority to access the space or participate in meetings there, the complaint says.

The company subsequently added a camera to the room that last week captured Alfozan entering and checking behind the television where the recording device had been installed, according to the FBI.

The complaint also alleges that he used a productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about the company’s building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars.

Days before his arrest last week, the complaint says, Alfozan left behind an unattended bag in a different room that, when opened by OpenAI personnel, was found to contain his wallet, identification and another recording device similar to the one placed in the conference room.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

 

US Halts Prosecution of Former CIA Analyst Accused of Aiding South Korean Intelligence

Headline USA Editor
-
0
US Halts Prosecution of Former CIA Analyst Accused of Aiding South Korean Intelligence

(Headline USA) The U.S. Justice Department has agreed not to prosecute a former CIA analyst who in 2024 was accused of serving as a secret agent for South Korea’s intelligence service, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors said Sue Mi Terry had shared nonpublic government information, facilitated access for South Korean officials to U.S. officials and accepted luxury gifts in exchange for advocating South Korean government positions during media appearances.

The Justice Department agreed Tuesday to put her prosecution on hold for a year, and then drop the charges altogether if Terry stays out of legal trouble. The deal comes weeks before Terry was set to stand trial in a Manhattan federal court on charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

Prosecutors did not explain in court documents why they decided not to move forward with her case, saying only that they determined that the interests of both Terry and the U.S. “will be best served by deferring prosecution.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Terry had maintained her innocence. Her attorney, Lee Wolosky, said Tuesday that Terry had “served her country loyally for many years” and was pleased with this result.

“We have consistently maintained that her interactions with South Korean officials were conducted in furtherance of U.S. interests and her work as a leading American specialist on North Korea and East Asia,” Wolosky said in a statement.

As part of her deal, Terry signed a document agreeing to certain facts of the case, including that she had shared notes with a South Korean intelligence officer from an off-the-record meeting she attended with then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2022.

The document also said she accepted designer handbags and coats from South Korea’s intelligence service, which were collectively valued at about $9,245.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Wyoming Grad Student Arrested for Poisoning Allegations

Headline USA Editor
-
0
Wyoming Grad Student Arrested for Poisoning Allegations

(Headline USA) A Wyoming microbiology graduate student from China has been arrested on accusations she poisoned the tea of a colleague who had pending patents and with whom she didn’t get along, then tried to flee the country after police questioned her.

Aili Wang, 32, was arrested Oct. 6 at Los Angeles International Airport, where prosecutors allege she sought to return to China. With her were laptops, electronic storage devices and documents now in the possession of police, who allege Wang was seen on surveillance video rummaging through the desk of the victim who specialized in technology for disease treatment — research similar to work she’d done in China.

Wang remained jailed without bail Tuesday in Los Angeles. She allegedly bought a chemical, acrylamide, over eBay, and it was first detected when the alleged victim’s wife and others tested water from the coffee maker he used to brew tea.

U.S. officials for years have accused China of stealing intellectual property from American universities.

The microbiology professor overseeing both graduate students, Mark Gomelsky, said the accusations left him reeling. He was uncertain if the victim will fully recover.

“It’s been disheartening, to say the least, to see that one of your student’s life is in jeopardy and another student may be responsible for that,” Gomelsky told The Associated Press. “That was one of the worst shocks in my professional career.”

Wang had no attorney listed in court documents. The AP tried to reach her via email and LinkedIn messages.

The police investigation began after the victim, identified in court documents as “K.T.,” began experiencing symptoms and his wife and others allegedly isolated the chemical in the coffee maker water. The victim and campus police then set up surveillance cameras in the office space he shared with Wang at the university in Laramie.

Wang allegedly was recorded Sept. 27 going through the alleged victim’s desk. On Oct. 1, she was recorded “taking photos and manipulating notebooks” on his desk, as well as rinsing out his mug with a liquid from her own mug, a University of Wyoming campus police officer’s affidavit said.

Wang and the alleged victim, who did not share research areas, did not get along, according to the affidavit.

During an interview by campus police on Oct. 5, Wang allegedly said she “had not used acrylamide in years.” A day later she was taken into custody in Los Angeles while in possession of “multiple laptops, multiple portable external digital storage devices, related accessories, physical records and written materials,” according to a request by Wyoming prosecutors to “significantly increase” her $200,000 bond upon extradition.

Wang had no reason to go through the desk of the other student whose federally funded, patent-pending research involved “new technology for cancer, neurological and genetic disease treatment,” according to the affidavit.

Wang “was reportedly working on similar research in China before coming to the U.S.,” the affidavit alleges.

Gomelsky described the alleged victim as a highly successful student from Vietnam.

Wang failed her first attempt to defend her dissertation and became envious of her colleague’s success in discovering how to deliver RNA to human cells using bacteria, Gomelsky told The Associated Press.

The alleged victim began experiencing extreme tiredness, inability to sleep and other unexplained symptoms soon after attending a prestigious conference in August, Gomelsky said.

He also noticed a strange taste in the tea that he made with a small coffee maker on his desk, Gomelsky said. When he washed the coffee maker, Gomelsky said, the taste would go away.

Suspecting someone in their shared office could be poisoning the graduate student, Gomelsky said a chemistry professor tested the water and identified acrylamide.

Wang had not been doing lab work since June while she worked on her dissertation, he said.

Wang faces a felony aggravated assault and battery charge in Wyoming punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

It’s not clear when she could be extradited to the state, where Albany County Circuit 

Court Judge Robert Sanford granted prosecutors’ request and raised bond to $1.5 million cash-only.

Wang allegedly asked eBay to delete her account after she bought acrylamide over the online retail site twice last summer, police said.

Best known as a carcinogenic byproduct of cooking starchy food and burning tobacco, acrylamide can be acutely toxic in high doses. It’s used in microbiology research involving proteins or DNA.

Discovery of the substance immediately made Tak Sumaya, an assistant professor who helped identify it in the coffee maker water, suspicious. Acrylamide is “not something you would find in that kind of quantity anywhere,” Sumaya said.

The alleged victim was working on “a pretty promising cancer therapy method,” Sumaya said. Wang, Sumaya added, took photos of every page of a notebook the alleged victim left on his desk.

“You wouldn’t do that with like your office or lab mate’s notebook unless there’s a really good reason, and there wasn’t,” Sumaya said.

The alleged victim went to the campus health clinic in August with worsening finger tingling and numbness, and leg weakness. Suspicion led his wife and others to boil away coffee maker water from the shared office to isolate 63 milligrams of white powder that tested positive for acrylamide, according to the affidavit.

The amateur investigators turned the sample over to university police.

The alleged victim continues to experience symptoms from the poisoning, including not being able to focus, tiring easily and a loss of sensation in his left hand, Gomelsky said.

“Acrylamide is a neurotoxin that cannot be neutralized so it stays in neurons and basically kills them. So it’s unclear if he’ll fully recover or not,” the professor said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Social Security Checks Rise Just $75 Per Month

Headline USA Editor
-
0
Social Security Checks Rise Just $75 Per Month

(Headline USA) The Social Security Administration projected Wednesday that the annual cost-of-living adjustment for older adults and people with disabilities will go up by 3.6% beginning in 2027, with some recipients complaining that is not enough to offset soaring prices.

The adjustment translates to $75 extra per month for the nearly 72 million people who receive monthly Social Security benefits and about 7.3 million beneficiaries who get Supplemental Security Income.

The announcement comes as inflation adds pressure on household budgets and businesses and as midterm elections are weeks away.

The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retirees and disabled beneficiaries is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers, up to a certain annual salary. That is set to increase to $192,300 in 2027, from $184,500 in 2026.

The agency’s commissioner, Frank Bisignano, said in a statement that the adjustment will give recipients “greater financial stability.”

Some older adults feel the increase is a drop in the bucket as inflation has eaten away at monthly savings. The government reported Wednesday that inflation accelerated in September, with the consumer price index rising 3.7% in September compared with a year ago and gas prices have spiked in the wake of renewed fighting between the United States and Iran.

Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy group, said the latest inflation data shows that “as important as the Social Security COLA is, it is not keeping up with prices.”

Lorrie Ufkin, a 71-year-old retiree who lives outside Rochester, Minnesota, said the COLA will not put a dent in her healthcare costs, which are set to increase after the Trump administration concludes at year’s end a temporary Medicare Part D subsidy program that has helped offset premiums. Ufkin said that her premiums and drug cost are expected to rise, although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has projected a modest increase for most people.

The COLA “doesn’t even meet what they’re going to do for changes to Medicare,” she told The Associated Press.

She said one of the medications both she and her husband take will go from $11 per month for each prescription, to $200 per month, after Republican administration changes made to older Americans’ healthcare programs. She said that was “catastrophic.”

Senior advocacy groups say the COLA is a strong reminder of the financial straits of many older people.

“There’s a lot on the line financially right now for older Americans — one in five have no retirement savings, and more people feel financially insecure this year than last. That makes Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment critically important,” said AARP CEO Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan.

Jaime Jakubczak, a 68-year-old resident of Buffalo, New York who retired early at 55, has recently gone back to work to make ends meet, specifically to afford rising property taxes. He said the COLA is insufficient because it is offset by high inflation and a proposed 3.9% property tax increase in his town.

Jakubczak called the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment “a pittance,” given how high food, healthcare and gasoline prices have become across the country.

“We were getting ahead a little bit with the COLA based on inflation, but the inflation is so high that it doesn’t offset what our COLA allowance is,” he said.

Most older adults believe the COLA isn’t adequately keeping up with inflation, according to an AARP poll from September. That poll found that about three-quarters of those 50 or older disagreed with the idea that a 3.5% COLA in 2027 would be enough to keep up with rising prices.

The Social Security Administration faces a looming bankruptcy date if a funding shortfall is not addressed by Congress.

The June 2026 Social Security and Medicare trustees’ report states that Social Security’s combined trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034. After that, incoming revenue would cover about 83% of scheduled benefits.

While a permanent solution for shoring up the benefits program has not been passed into law, lawmakers on the Hill have called for new measures to replenish the trust funds.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in June proposed lifting the Social Security payroll tax cap, which is a maximum amount of earnings taxable. Treating all income the same “would generate substantial revenue that would extend the solvency of Social Security for another generation,” they wrote in The New York Times.

The move is controversial because Republicans have traditionally criticized calls to raise taxes on the wealthy.

The Peterson Foundation estimates that lifting the payroll tax cap would add roughly $3 trillion into the program over the next 10 years.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations signed into law new benefits for retirees, which boosted their finances, but simultaneously accelerated the insolvency of the old-age benefits program.

The Trump administration, as part of Republicans’ tax and spending bill, gave a temporary tax deduction for people 65 and over, which applies to all income — not just Social Security. But those who aren’t able to claim the deduction include the lowest-income older adults who already don’t pay taxes on Social Security, those who choose to claim their benefits before they reach 65 and those above a defined income threshold.

Additionally, Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024 repealed two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that previously limited Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people, including largely former public workers.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

 

James Talarico’s Anti-White Tweets Re-Emerge

Luis Cornelio
-
0
James Talarico’s Anti-White Tweets Re-Emerge

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is accusing Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico of racism following the resurfacing of a controversial tweet in which Talarico claimed that white Americans spread “the virus of racism.”

Talarico’s tweet, posted on May 8, 2020, addressed what he called the “virus of racism” following the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man, in Georgia.

“White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus,” Talarico wrote. At the time, he was serving his second term as a Texas state representative.

Still referring to the “virus of racism,” the Democrat politician said “we spread it wherever we go—through our words, our actions, and our systems.”

“We don’t have to be showing symptoms—like a white hood or a Confederate flag—to be contagious,” he continued.

Cruz blasted Talarico over the remarks, declaring, “This guy is a racist and a zealot. This is not Texas.”

This is not the first time Talarico’s left-wing rhetoric has drawn scrutiny.

The Texas Democrat once declared that “God is nonbinary,” triggering criticism. He later claimed that the post was cringe.

Talarico is set to face Republican Ken Paxton in the general election. They are vying to replace incumbent and outgoing Sen. John Cornyn.

Ken Paxton Partied With Fugitives in Dubai

Jose Nino
-
0
Ken Paxton Partied With Fugitives in Dubai

(José Niño, Headline USA) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing renewed scrutiny in his Senate campaign after a Wall Street Journal report described his attendance at a Dubai New Year gathering with his girlfriend and two Americans who had been indicted on federal health care fraud charges and had not returned to the United States at the time. 

WSJ reported that Paxton watched the arrival of 2025 from a luxury high rise near the Burj Khalifa with Tracy Duhon. Court records, people familiar with the matter, and video reviewed by the newspaper placed Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail at the same event.

Ahmed, a health care executive, had contributed $190,000 to Paxton, according to campaign finance records cited by the WSJ. That total included a $25,000 donation made days after Ahmed’s indictment, the paper reported. Ahmed and Suhail have since returned to the United States to face charges. Ahmed remains in custody and has pleaded not guilty to the larger allegations against him. 

Paxton adviser Nick Maddux did not directly address the Dubai gathering in a statement to the Journal. “Like President Trump, Ken Paxton has been politically persecuted for years, and every time, voters have seen through it and sent him back to office because they know he has always fought for Texas,” Maddux said. 

The report arrived as Paxton seeks to stop his Democratic rival James Talarico from winning a statewide Texas race that Democrats have not won since 1994. Polling has shown a competitive contest rather than a settled result. An October UMass Lowell and YouGov survey found Paxton and Talarico tied at 45 percent, while a separate Siena poll released October 13 put Talarico ahead 48 percent to 44 percent.

WSJ’s account adds to a long list of controversies involving Paxton, including the 2023 Texas House impeachment and his later acquittal by the state Senate. He also resolved state securities fraud charges in 2024 through an agreement that included $300,000 in restitution, per the newspaper. 

His campaign maintains that he has repeatedly survived attacks because Republican voters trust his record. 

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

Biden Admin, Allowed Millions of Immigrants to Overstay Their Visas

Jose Nino
-
0
Biden Admin, Allowed Millions of Immigrants to Overstay Their Visas

(José Niño, Headline USA) A Department of Homeland Security watchdog review released earlier this month found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement acted on only a small share of millions of potential visa overstay cases from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024 when Joe Biden was president. The Center for Immigration Studies says the findings expose a major gap between identifying people who may have remained beyond authorized admission periods and pursuing enforcement action.

The inspector general reported that ICE received 3,145,375 leads involving possible violations of nonimmigrant visa terms during the four-year review period. Of those, 104,049 carried potential national security or public safety flags, yet ICE opened 496 investigations and made eight arrests from that group.

The review found that ICE assessed 21,885 of the priority leads as viable for investigation. Still, the resulting enforcement record was limited. Among 1,769 viable highest priority leads, ICE investigated 84 cases and made two arrests, according to the watchdog.

CIS also highlights the lack of action on cases outside ICE’s highest priority category. The watchdog found that more than 2.8 million nonpriority leads produced five investigations and two arrests. The inspector general cited difficulties locating individuals, resource constraints, and agency policy as factors in ICE’s limited response.

The report linked much of the enforcement outcome to a September 2021 directive issued under then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The policy instructed ICE to concentrate its limited capacity on a narrower group of priority cases. The Inspector General concluded that the policy restricted the agency’s ability to pursue other potential overstay violations.

Visa overstays occur when a visitor remains in the country past the end of the authorized stay. CIS that overstays deserve the same policy attention as unlawful border crossings because both can create unlawful presence. DHS reported an overall overstay rate of 3.64 percent for fiscal year 2022, more than twice the level in recent years, according to CIS’s review of federal data.

Jessica Vaughan, CIS’s director of policy studies, has urged federal officials to strengthen visa screening in high overstay categories, penalize sponsors and employers linked to persistent overstay problems, expand ICE enforcement, and complete a biometric entry exit system.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino

Trump Trolls ‘Gays for Palestine’

Luis Cornelio
-
0
Trump Trolls ‘Gays for Palestine’

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Donald Trump poked fun on Monday at the ironic slogan “Gays for Palestine,” a label used to describe LGBT activists who protest what they view as Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

Trump mocked the group at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where he campaigned on behalf of Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections.

“I saw it today, and I said, wait a minute. ‘Gays for Palestine’? Do you know what they do to gay people in that part of the world?” Trump asked thousands of supporters attending the rally.

“They throw you off the top of a building,” the president added, referring to some of the barbaric treatment gay individuals have faced under extremist groups in the Middle East.

In 2015, ISIS released disturbing videos depicting its terrorists throwing men accused of being gay from buildings as a form of public execution.

Other Islamic extremist groups have employed similarly brutal punishments against people accused of engaging in same-sex conduct, including stoning, burning and flogging, all in the name of their interpretation of Shariah law.

Hamas, which governed the Gaza Strip before being removed from power in 2024, had also criminalized same-sex relations. Separately, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has been accused of failing to stop persecution and discrimination against gay individuals.

The group at the center of Trump’s mockery appears to be Queers for Palestine, a London-based activist body that has more than 50,000 social media followers.

The group, alongside its allies, criticizes so-called colonialism and Israeli oppression toward Palestinians. Some of the group’s signs attracted widespread attention on social media following Israel’s military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The group’s signs drew widespread mockery on social media over the irony of LGBT activists supporting Palestinians.

On its Instagram page, Queers for Palestine describes itself as a group of “Queers committed to the struggle for a just world, free of settler-colonialism, zionism, and capitalism,” alongside the Palestinian and transgender flags.

In contrast to the Palestinian regions, Israel has enacted several laws to protect LGBT people, effectively becoming one of the most progressive countries in the Middle East.

Israel recognizes same-sex marriages performed abroad and allows same-sex couples to jointly adopt children.

The Israel Defense Forces has permitted openly gay individuals to serve since 1993, well before the U.S. military’s repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Israel also hosts annual Gay Pride parades.

Bank of America Hit With $1.2 Billion Fine

Headline USA Editor
-
0
Bank of America Hit With $1.2 Billion Fine

(Headline USA) The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday that it’s imposing $1.2 billion in fines on Bank of America for allegedly violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.

The fines on America’s second-biggest bank amount to the third-largest in the department’s history.

“When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”

Treasury said Bank of America also reached an $11.6 million settlement with the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control over “apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including on Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism.”

In a statement, Treasury said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed the $1.2 billion penalty for Bank of America’s “failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border.”

The penalty includes $750 million that will go to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the largest fine ever imposed by that federal bank regulatory agency.

Treasury said that Bank of America “admits that it willfully violated” the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to help the government detect and prevent money laundering.

“Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right,’’ Bank of America said in a statement. “We worked with regulators to reach these penalty resolutions stemming from violations cited in the previously reported 2024 (Comptroller of the Currency) Consent Order and FinCEN’s investigation.

“We have invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime, and our team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators.’’

The latest action is the third-largest penalty ever issued by the Treasury Department, behind a roughly $4 billion settlement in 2023 with Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and an approximately $3 billion settlement with Canada-based TD Bank the following year. Both those historic actions happened as part of the Biden administration’s focus on anti-money laundering and efforts to promote compliance with the then-emerging virtual currency industry.

Months later, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, was sentenced to four months in prison over charges that he looking the other way as criminals used his platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Trump Ambassador Guilfoyle Resigns Amid Misconduct Allegations

Headline USA Editor
-
0
Trump Ambassador Guilfoyle Resigns Amid Misconduct Allegations

(Headline USA)  The White House publicly asked for U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle’s resignation on Tuesday as she faced mounting accusations of improper conduct, and she announced within two hours that she was quitting, ending days of talk and speculation about her professional fate. Guilfoyle insisted that she would “vigorously defend” herself.

President Donald Trump’s administration had said earlier Tuesday it had asked Guilfoyle to leave her post after she faced severe criticism over allegations she engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens.

That revelation came in response to a question to freshly minted White House press secretary Katie Zacharia at her first media briefing Tuesday morning. Zacharia said Guilfoyle “has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.”

“She went to Greece. She was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading,” Trump said just after Guilfoyle’s resignation, which was posted on her X account. He said he had not spoken to her but “she will not be there.”

Guilfoyle’s departure comes after its possibility was previewed to The Associated Press over the weekend and Trump registered his unhappiness on Monday at reports about her alleged conduct. Those comments came a day after the AP, citing a senior U.S. official, reported that Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were “extremely pissed off” by Guilfoyle’s reported conduct.

In a series of stories dating to late last month, The Wall Street Journal has reported questionable conduct by Guilfoyle, including an alleged threat to a host country official, accepting improper gifts and services and offering to use her influence inside the Republican administration in return for the payment of a large credit card bill.

Guilfoyle addressed the accusations directly in her resignation post on X, saying, “These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity.”

“I have dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional,” she said. “I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”

In a statement released late Sunday, Guilfoyle’s lawyers denied that she had done anything wrong and claimed that the money she was seeking from a Trump donor was payment for services — public appearances and speaking engagements that predate her ambassadorial nomination — that had not been paid.

The lawyers, David Schwartz and Jesse Binnall, also rejected allegations of impropriety related to Guilfoyle’s travel on private planes, saying that before every such trip she “sought, obtained and followed State Department guidance and followed the Department’s travel regulations.”

They did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

After defending Guilfoyle following the first report, Rubio declined to comment publicly on the growing allegations. Last week, Rubio said: “Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here.”

But after another report appeared later, Rubio — speaking Thursday before leaving Athens — berated journalists for asking about the allegations. He said that he didn’t know if they were true and that he would not respond if he could not confirm them.

“You guys walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel. It’s not the gospel for me. That’s not the way we do things,” Rubio said at the foot of his plane as Guilfoyle, who was there to see him depart, looked on.

A second U.S. official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said the State Department’s inspector general was looking into the allegations, which first began surfacing in the Journal late last month and have since multiplied.

The second official could not say if a formal IG probe had begun. Inspectors general often conduct informal inquiries into complaints against staffers, and many times those inquiries do not result in a full-on investigation, which can result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. The State Department has declined to comment on a potential IG investigation.

There was no immediate response to Zacharia’s statement from the Greek government or Cabinet members.

Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, Greek opposition parties had called on the Foreign Ministry to summon Guilfoyle to respond to the allegations made against her. “This, most importantly, is an issue of national dignity,” Sia Anagnostopoulou, a former deputy foreign minister, said in parliament Friday. Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis responded that Guilfoyle had been treated “the same way as every other ambassador” and argued that an official summons had not been necessary.

Hours earlier, Guilfoyle had posted photos of her meeting this week with the Spanish ambassador to Athens as well as birthday wishes for Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, accompanied by Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” from the 2023 soundtrack of the movie “Barbie.”

Greece has taken on an increasingly important and influential role because of its geographic location in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly on energy issues as the war with Iran has spiked global oil prices. Besides the vast number of Greek-registered oil tankers that regularly ply the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, Greece is well positioned to be a pipeline conduit for liquefied natural gas imports into the Balkans and beyond.

As the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Guilfoyle had put an emphasis on energy issues, although her close association with executives in that sector was part of what got her into trouble.

The top two Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, as well as the ranking member on the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., have already called for an investigation into Guilfoyle.

Since late September, the Journal has detailed numerous accounts of questionable conduct by Guilfoyle. Its first report said that she had told guests at a reception that the United States could undermine the Greek government if it chose to, promoted the business interests of one particular Greek construction and energy company and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.

While Rubio was in Athens, the Journal reported — citing text messages — that Guilfoyle had asked a Trump donor and supporter to pay a $100,000 credit card bill just before her confirmation hearing, promising him access to administration officials if he did.

The Journal then reported that Guilfoyle had been enraged about not being invited to a Greek-themed event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year and demanded to attend while boasting about luxury travel to France with energy company executives.

Another report, from the British tabloid The Daily Mail, said that Guilfoyle had alienated staff at the U.S. Embassy in Athens and had pushed the bounds of behavior appropriate for the top representative of the U.S. government to Greece.

Guilfoyle is a former Fox News Channel host and California prosecutor who was married to Democrat Gavin Newsom when he was San Francisco’s mayor, before he became California’s governor. She later was engaged to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

 

1...101112...3,865Page 11 of 3,865