# Eric Deters **Eric Deters** is a Northern Kentucky businessman, conservative talk-show host and former criminal-defense lawyer, a longtime supporter and donor of [[Donald Trump]], and the man whose messages with [[Kimberly Guilfoyle]] set off the scandal that ended her ambassadorship to Greece in October 2026. He calls himself "the Bulldog." He has run twice for office as a Republican and lost both times. He matters here less for who he is than for which way the story ran. The case that removed a sitting ambassador did not come from investigators, a whistleblower or the press digging on its own. It came from the donor side: a man who says he was asked for money in exchange for access, kept the messages, and handed them over when the arrangement soured. ## Law career and suspension Deters practiced as a criminal-defense lawyer in the Cincinnati area. The Kentucky Bar Association suspended his license twice for misconduct, including making false statements in court and filing frivolous claims. In June 2021 the Kentucky Supreme Court refused to reinstate him, citing a "notorious propensity" for filing malicious and frivolous lawsuits; the chief justice described his approach to law as "anarchy." In 2020 a judge banned him from the Hamilton County, Ohio, courthouse after he reportedly threatened on social media to burn it down. He now describes himself as retired from practicing law and calls himself a "legal outlaw." While suspended, he was a central figure in lawsuits against Greater Cincinnati's largest hospital networks seeking to block COVID-19 vaccine requirements for their employees. ## Media, business and politics - **Talk radio and YouTube.** He hosted a morning radio show based in Ohio that promoted Trump's 2016 campaign, and later *The Bulldog Show* on YouTube. - **Business.** He co-owned the regional restaurant chain Snappy Tomato Pizza. - **Freedom Fest.** In 2020 he launched Freedom Fest in Northern Kentucky, an event opposing COVID-19 mandates. He has said he paid Guilfoyle roughly $300,000 over several years to speak there. - **Governor, 2023.** He ran in the Republican primary for governor of Kentucky and finished fourth of twelve with 5.8 percent. [[Daniel Cameron]] won the nomination and lost the general election to [[Andy Beshear]]. - **Congress, 2024.** He challenged Rep. [[Thomas Massie]] in the 4th District Republican primary in May 2024 and finished third with less than 12 percent; Massie won with 76 percent. ## The Guilfoyle affair In October 2026 Deters gave the *Wall Street Journal*, and then NBC News, the Signal messages and texts at the center of the Guilfoyle scandal. They show Guilfoyle, in the days before her July 2025 confirmation hearing, asking him to wire $100,000 to her American Express account. He says he refused. What he wanted, by the accounts of CBS News and others, was help from the administration: the extradition of Abubakar Atiq Durrani, an Ohio spine surgeon who fled to Pakistan after being charged over unnecessary surgeries and insurance fraud (Deters was advising lawyers for Durrani's former patients); help with an IRS inquiry into a tax deduction; and a booking on [[Tucker Carlson]]'s show. Guilfoyle reportedly contacted the then-IRS commissioner on his behalf. He told CBS the arrangement was "pay to play" and "quid pro quo," and says she never delivered. Two days after Guilfoyle resigned on 13 October, he sued her for defamation in Kenton County, Kentucky, over her statement that his account was false, and said he intends to depose her and [[Donald Trump Jr.]] The next day he posted a recording of a phone call with a Republican official in Athens who alleges, without published evidence, that she ran a system for collecting bribes. > [!warning] Weigh his account in both directions > Deters's description of the arrangement is also a description of his own conduct: by his telling, he was offering money for access and walked away when he did not get it. Guilfoyle's lawyers dispute the authenticity of the messages and say the money was owed to her for past appearances. None of it has been tested in court. The full account, including the separate reporting on her conduct in Athens and the inspector general investigation, is on [[Kimberly Guilfoyle]]. ## See also - [[Kimberly Guilfoyle]] - [[Trump Corruption News Log]] - [[Quid Pro Quo]] - [[Donald Trump Jr.]] - [[Thomas Massie]]