“The text messages Eric Deters gave the Wall Street Journal, which he says came from Kimberly Guilfoyle, are not authentic.” — Jesse Binnall. Our verdict: Unverified.
Jesse Binnall, Kimberly Guilfoyle's lawyer, told the Wall Street Journal that she disputes the authenticity of the text messages Eric Deters provided. The Independent reported it on 9 October 2026.
Our verdict
Unverified
We could not confirm or refute this claim. Guilfoyle's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, says the text messages are not authentic, and Eric Deters says they are. No one has published an independent check of the messages.
Know something that settles it? Send us evidenceWhat we found
The claim is unverifiable. Several outlets, including The Hill and The Independent, report that Jesse Binnall, Kimberly Guilfoyle's lawyer, told the Wall Street Journal that she disputes the authenticity of the text messages Eric Deters provided. Deters stands by them. We found no independent forensic or official check of the messages, so we cannot say whether they are genuine or not.
The evidence
6 sources, all background: none settles the claim either way.
- Background
The Independent reports that Kimberly Guilfoyle's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told the Wall Street Journal that she disputes the authenticity of the text messages. [1]
- Background
The Hill also reports that Guilfoyle's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told the Wall Street Journal that she disputes the authenticity of the text messages. [2]
- Background
The Union Leader reports that the Wall Street Journal published a report about text messages between Kimberly Guilfoyle and Eric Deters. [3]
- Background
The Hill reports that the Wall Street Journal published a report detailing alleged text messages between Kimberly Guilfoyle and Eric Deters about a $100,000 wire transfer. [4]
- Background
CBS News confirms that the Wall Street Journal reported on the text messages between Guilfoyle and Deters. [5]
- Background
The Independent reports that Kimberly Guilfoyle has publicly disputed the authenticity of the text messages reported by the Wall Street Journal. [6]
What we could not confirm
- We could not independently verify the technical authenticity of the text messages themselves.
- We did not have access to the original Wall Street Journal investigative report and relied on secondary news coverage.
How we checked
We reviewed reports from The Independent, The Hill, the Union Leader and CBS News on the Wall Street Journal's reporting and the response from Guilfoyle's lawyer. We looked for any independent check of the messages and found none. We reviewed 9 relevant sources.
Sources
- [1]www.independent.co.uk · JD Vance and even a Trump loyalist trash Kimberly Guilfoyle over texts to donor · October 9, 2026
- [2]thehill.com · Read Guilfoyle’s texts to GOP donor Deters: ‘You’ll literally cost me my ambassadorship’ · October 9, 2026
- [3]unionleader.com · Kimberly Guilfoyle, ‘broke’ after split from Trump Jr, begged donor for cash to pay Amex bill: report · October 8, 2026
- [4]thehill.com · Guilfoyle asked GOP donor to wire her $100K for AmEx bill: Wall Street Journal report · October 8, 2026
- [5]cbsnews.com · Kimberly Guilfoyle associate says when she asked him for $100K, it was "quid pro quo"
- [6]independent.co.uk · JD Vance addresses Kimberly Guilfoyle report: 'Obviously, I don’t love that' · October 9, 2026
Help us check this claim
We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute this claim. If you know of an official record, dataset, transcript or report that settles it, send us the link. We review every submission and update this fact check when the evidence changes the picture.
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