EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). This is so far the most comprehensive analysis of the Guilfoyle scandal, by Giorgos Harvalias, who has decades of experience as an editor-in-chief of newspapers in Athens and began his career in diplomatic reporting. As he notes, the only serious question remaining is about the so-called “vertical corridor”, which we will try to clarify in the days and weeks to come. So far we have mentioned many times that when a project does not make business sense, it is bound to fail. And the “Vertical Corridor”, aiming to sell 3x or 4x more expensive Texas LNG to the poorest countries of Europe, did not make much business sense.
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Who Set Kimberly Up for the Firing Squad?
SOURCE – dimokratia.gr – link here for the original Greek text
The crucial question is whether the “Guilfoyle scandal” will also lead to the premature demise of the Vertical Corridor, with all that entails for those who invested in it commercially and politically.
By Giorgos Charvalias
Some friends asked me how, after the first poisonous article in The Wall Street Journal about Kimberly Guilfoyle, I dared to predict that, sooner or later, “she would be finished,” during an appearance on the program of the excellent Giorgos Sahinis, perhaps the most influential television journalist of our time.
I certainly have no powers of prophecy. Having served as a newspaper editor, however, I knew that when you have a major story thoroughly nailed down, you release it in installments. You fire the first warning shot, hoping to provoke a denial, and save the best material for later.
That is precisely what our colleagues at the historic American newspaper did. They fired a tracer round with bizarre statements like “if we want to, we can bring down your government,” and after the first denials—which, truth be told, were rather halfhearted—they moved on to the main course.
As if it had been waiting in the wings, the Daily Mail, the well-known British tabloid, picked up the baton and published the “Davos incident.” Then the WSJ returned with fresh revelations, the dismissal followed, and the Daily Mail struck again, exposing the “sponsorship” of a Mercedes. By all appearances, the affair is becoming an ongoing series of intriguing revelations that may even reach Prime Minister Mitsotakis’s inner circle.
Of course, as I explained on the TV program the other day, all this suggests a form of “contract journalism,” involving strange connections and possibly even surveillance, since the successive reports were based, at least in part, on recordings of unclear origin and leaks of text messages from Ms. Guilfoyle’s personal phone.
Be that as it may, journalists do not have to answer for their sources, because news is news. The motives behind this “mission to destroy her,” however, are another matter entirely.
The Murdoch media empire, which publishes the WSJ and owns the Fox television network, has undoubtedly made President Trump its strategic target, particularly in the run-up to the highly consequential midterm elections.
The two sides are locked in a serious, multi-billion-dollar legal dispute, and Kimberly Guilfoyle proved to be the weakest link.
Let us not forget that the Murdochs already had a score to settle with her, having been forced to pay $4 million in an out-of-court settlement to persuade a young assistant of the now-former ambassador to withdraw sexual harassment allegations dating from Guilfoyle’s time working at the television network owned by the powerful business family.
The truth is, however, that Kimberly’s rapid dismantling—which has now made her a fixture on American television comedy programs—required very little effort. The situation spoke for itself.
From the moment she set foot in Greece, it became apparent that she was what ordinary Greeks would call a “walking circus.”
She gave people reason to be irritated early on, when she used the official U.S. Embassy website to send invitations to her welcome party at a well-known nightclub.
This “bouzouki diplomacy,” which continued for several days, combined with provocative outfits and flamboyant appearances at basketball games alongside an eccentric—to put it mildly—“stylist” who meowed on TikTok, drove the American diplomatic mission’s career professionals to despair.
They began sending their first coded messages of dissatisfaction to Washington. Around that point, the countdown began.
Guilfoyle was also extraordinarily clumsy in her business dealings.
At every meeting, she dragged along a young Greek-American lobbyist with a dazzling smile, who presented himself as an invaluable confidential adviser and a liaison to Greece’s economic elite.
What was remarkable was how that entire “elite”—leading shipowners, industrialists, and construction magnates—groveled in turn at the feet of a woman who was visibly unable to fulfill her official diplomatic duties.
On the diplomatic front, Ms. Guilfoyle tried to attach her name to the already-underway initiative known as the Vertical Corridor, designed to transport extremely expensive American liquefied natural gas (LNG) northward into Europe.
Despite the American ambassador’s threatening exhortations to Balkan politicians, the project appeared commercially problematic from the outset because it faced a fundamental obstacle: a lack of meaningful demand.
If the Russia-Ukraine crisis ends, transporting American LNG to northern Europe will lose all purpose.
The flow will reverse, and the pipelines will carry Russian, not American, liquefied natural gas.
Moreover, Venture Global, the American company Ms. Guilfoyle aggressively promoted as the exclusive partner in a joint venture with the Greek AKTOR-DEPA consortium, is seen as particularly aggressive and already faces unresolved disputes and legal battles with European energy giants such as Shell, which is already active in the region.
Add Turkey’s energy ambitions—its desire to become a hub for transporting both oil and natural gas from the Middle East to Europe, naturally with the blessing of U.S. Ambassador Tom Barrack—and you can see why the venture was effectively booby-trapped from the start.
This entire chain of conflicting interests contributed to an invisible hand pulling the strings to bring the “Guilfoyle scandal” into the open.
The crucial question is whether this will automatically lead to the Vertical Corridor’s premature death as well, with all that implies for everyone who invested in it commercially and politically.
As for the more gossip-oriented question of who “set up” Ms. Guilfoyle, she was betrayed from within.
Career officials who had never managed to establish even basic communication with her; employees loyal to the previous ambassador, George Tsunis; disgruntled secretaries; disappointed local “advisers” who thought they would be given a role; drivers; bodyguards; even cleaners.
These were the people in a position to know the juicy details of what was happening inside Jefferson House and pass them along to the appropriate recipients within the American “deep state,” which is controlled almost entirely by the Democratic camp.
The allegations are numerous and have already triggered an independent internal review at the State Department concerning unethical conduct.
At the same time, congressional oversight proceedings are underway, requested by Democratic minority members on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
As for her succession, it was predetermined from the start.
The current chargé d’affaires, Joshua Huck, will assume the ambassador’s duties “indefinitely.”
Until now, he had seemed little more than a decorative presence beside Guilfoyle, but he, too, had every reason to feel resentful.
As a career diplomat and former deputy assistant secretary of state, he had been passed over for the position.
The extent of his involvement in “entrapping” his excessively flamboyant superior has yet to be fully assessed.
Regardless, the affair is not closed.
If the balance of power in Congress changes after the November 3 midterm elections, we will certainly see formal subpoenas, hearings, and investigations into the criminal offenses of bribery and accepting bribes.
Then Ms. Kimberly may be forced to open her mouth because, as they say in Washington, “she knows very well where the skeletons are buried.”
That is why an atmosphere of mild hysteria prevails in the corridors of the Maximou Mansion, at major construction companies, and even in certain newsrooms whose survival depends on how events unfold.
It is precisely the sort of atmosphere that would send the stylist, our beloved Fancy James, leaping about in a frenzy.
Between us, he is also the only member of this colorful troupe we will actually miss—for his genuinely entertaining appearances.
