Close to 600 people. That is how many patients a 2013 indictment says Dr. Abubakar Atiq Durrani pushed into unnecessary, risky spinal surgeries.
Durrani is believed to have fled the country before he could stand trial.
Thirteen years on, his case has surfaced in a lawsuit against former Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Attorney Eric Deters, a former Trump donor, filed the defamation suit. He has set a condition for dropping it.
Trump must get Durrani extradited from his suspected hiding place in Pakistan, Deters said. The president must also investigate how the judiciary handled the case.
Deters addressed the obvious objection in a video posted to social media.
“This is not extortion,” he said. “Nothing I am asking for or doing is unlawful. I am playing hardball because the doctor Durrani victims deserve hardball on their behalf.”
He speaks from experience with the case.
Deters performed legal work for numerous patients who say Durrani pressed them into procedures they did not need, and he has pushed for the doctor’s extradition on their behalf.
The dispute with Guilfoyle began with text messages from last year.
In them, she asked Deters to cover roughly $100,000 in her personal debts. Deters later made the messages public.
His lawsuit came next. Deters announced it after Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality, allegedly claimed the texts were generated by artificial intelligence.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Guilfoyle gave White House officials that explanation in private. Her public statement was vaguer: she called the accusations “false.”
The White House said Tuesday that it had asked Guilfoyle to step down, and she announced her resignation soon after.
The texts and the distraction they created for the administration led Trump to request it.
The complaint carries a personal demand as well. Deters wants an admission that he “did not blackmail” Guilfoyle, plus confirmation that he owes her nothing.
Deters is representing himself as the case proceeds.
He said he plans to seek depositions from both Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. The two became engaged in 2020 and ended the relationship in 2024.
He also promised more material.
“Information is pouring into me. And I got off the phone today from someone in Greece,” Deters said. “By the end of tomorrow I am going to play for you a phone recording that is the most explosive, most devastating information about Kimberly Guilfoyle to date.”
He added detail about the recording. “No one in the media has it,” he said. “And I am going to play for you a 16-minute phone conversation.”
Guilfoyle is not the only target. Deters said he holds additional damaging information about other figures in the Trump orbit.
He framed the stakes in sweeping terms while describing himself as a supporter of the president.
“This might just bring down the entire Trump administration, an administration which I have supported from day one, whose policies I still support,” he said.
He then named two of the administration’s top officials.
“It also may end the JD Vance, Marco Rubio ticket after you hear the phone call that I’m going to play tomorrow,” he said.
Guilfoyle’s attorney answered the suit in a statement to The Post.
“The lawsuit is clearly frivolous on its face. Our upcoming response will speak for itself,” the lawyer said.
