After Trump Campaign, Kimberly Guilfoyle Joins Disgraced Former Governor’s Senate Bid

Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Kimberly Guilfoyle

Kimberly Guilfoyle announced Monday she is joining disgraced former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' campaign for the Senate.

The former Fox News host and Donald Trump campaign adviser, 52, announced on Twitter she would become the national chair of Greitens' 2022 campaign.

"I am honored to have Kimberly's support," Greitens said in his own statement. "Her work on behalf of President Donald J. Trump was unmatched."

Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor, is the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., the former president's oldest son.

She is most well-known since leaving Fox News for her ties to the Trumps, delivering a famously impassioned speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention that culminated in her stretching both her hands up over her head and yelling out: "The best is yet to come!"

Greitens was embroiled in controversy before re-emerging for this campaign.

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NBC News Kimberly Guilfoyle speaking at the Republican National Convention on Monday night

He resigned as Missouri's governor in 2018 amid the fallout from a series of scandals, according to the Associated Press and other outlets. Most seriously, he was accused of trying to blackmail his former hairstylist with nude photos after having an affair with her.

The woman claimed he took a compromising photograph of her while she was blindfolded and threatened to publicize it if she exposed him, as she had claimed in audio secretly recorded by her ex-husband and subsequently leaked to the press.

Greitens and his wife, Sheena, confirmed that he had had an affair before taking office but he denied other wrongdoing. (Sheena filed for divorce last year.)

The hairstylist's allegation ultimately led to a criminal case and felony invasion-of-privacy indictment against Greitens.

His defense insisted there was no evidence Greitens had taken a photo of the woman and no such photo has ever been found.

Months later, he was hit with another criminal charge for tampering with a computer following claims that he improperly took a donor list from his nonprofit veterans group to help his political campaign, which he denied.

He was also the focus of a bipartisan probe from the Missouri House of Representatives, which featured disturbing testimony from the hair stylist. She said that, among other things, Greitens had touched her without consent after blindfolding her during their 2015 encounter and coerced her into performing oral sex.

She also said he took photos of her during the encounter — she recalled seeing a flash through her blindfold — and said they would be used against her if she spoke about what happened. He called her a "little whore," she said.

"I was definitely fearful," she told the House investigating committee. "I was so embarrassed and ashamed." (Greitens denounced the investigation a "political witch hunt.")

The House committee likewise looked into the donor list and described Greitens as using it for his own campaign's gain as well as lying in his campaign finance reports.

Faced with possible impeachment proceedings, Greitens resigned in June 2018 but decried "legal harassment" and said he had not "committed any offense worthy of this treatment."

Shortly before his resignation, his invasion-of-privacy charge was dropped during jury selection after a judge ruled that the lead prosecutor could be called as a witness and Greitens' attorneys indicated they would argue the state had acted improperly.

The prosecutor said being called as a witness would make her position untenable.

Following Greitens' resignation, the computer tampering charge was dropped as part of an agreement with law enforcement.

RELATED: Donald Trump Jr. & Kimberly Guilfoyle Buy $9.7M Home in Jupiter, Florida

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty From left: Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle

Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Eric Greitens

Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and Rhodes scholar, is seeking the Missouri Senate seat that will be vacated in 2022 by Roy Blunt, who recently announced his retirement.

His latest bid has already stirred controversy.

"Greitens is a clear and present danger to botching the race for the GOP," political strategist Scott Reed told Politico. Other experts told the outlet that Greitens does not have a wide open path to victory.

Guilfoyle, who began dating Don Jr. in 2018 after his divorce from Vanessa Trump, said in her own statement that she was "proud" to join Greitens' 2022 campaign.

"Greitens is a fighter who has stood with President Trump and has a proven record of advancing conservative, America First policies," she said.

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Guilfoyle and Don Jr., 43, recently bought a home together in Jupiter, Florida, but the couple has demurred on whether they'll get married.

In February, Guilfoyle said during an interview on a local cable show that she was "very in love" with Don Jr., whom she said she's known for 14 years. "I already feel married and committed to him," she said, according to Page Six.

During an appearance on The View during the 2020 campaign, the couple said they were more focused on Trump's re-election than they were about a wedding.

Guilfoyle said then that she would marry Don Jr. "if he can get the president re-elected."