Vice President JD Vance faced tough questions on Wednesday about whether the administration’s anti-fraud push applies to everyone equally, including allies of Donald Trump. His answer defended Kimberly Guilfoyle and other embattled figures while promising accountability across the board.
JD Vance defends Kimberly Guilfoyle amid scandal
At an Ohio event rolling out new fraud-fighting measures, Vance was asked to square his hardline rhetoric with mounting allegations against people close to Donald Trump. He pushed back on rushing to conclusions.
“What I’d say is that we want to fight fraud wherever we see it. What we’re not going to do is go and attack somebody based on an anonymously sourced story. And in some of those cases, you have to let the facts play out and see what the facts actually are,” Vance said.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s former ambassador to Greece, stepped down last week. She faces claims she threatened foreign officials, handed lobbyists special access, and sought payment for political influence.
Guilfoyle denies the allegations and says she will “vigorously defend” herself. Now, JD Vance stressed that Donald Trump himself drives the anti-fraud agenda: “There is no person who hates the idea of people enriching themselves fraudulently over access to the government than Donald J. Trump.” He added that “we’re not going to try people in the court of public opinion.”
Moreover, the questions did not stop with Kimberly Guilfoyle. Former Trump lawyer Alina Habba denies wrongdoing after reports linked a Venezuelan banker’s pardon to a $50 million deal for her services. Ric Grenell, former Kennedy Center head, faces a White House counsel probe over an undeposited donation; he denies the claims too.
Vance framed the crackdown as sweeping. “We reject anybody getting enriched off of their connections to the government. And if we see it happening, whether it’s our partisan friends or our partisan enemies, we are going to do something about it,” he said.
