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Former Trump 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita served as a paid campaign adviser for Sali Berisha, leader of Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party, ahead of Albania\u2019s parliamentary election in 2025.AP<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n During the Republican Party\u2019s \u201cmidterm convention\u201d last month, GOP leaders argued that a Democratic victory in November would cause a Marxist takeover of America. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a communist country if they win,\u201d President Donald Trump said from the stage\u2014one of more than 60 reported<\/a> references to the red menace made by speakers at the Dallas event.<\/p>\n But backstage, top Republicans were feting an actual ex-communist. Sali Berisha, an octogenarian leader of Albania\u2019s opposition party, posted<\/a> pictures<\/a> of himself with Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward; former DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin<\/a>; Medicare and Medicaid administrator Mehmet Oz<\/a>; Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters<\/a>; Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford<\/a>; Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers<\/a>; and conservative pundit<\/a> Ben Shapiro<\/a>, among <\/a>others<\/a>.<\/p>\n Berisha\u2014who began his career as a member of the Balkan state\u2019s communist party under the regime of repressive Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha\u2014wasn\u2019t alone. He posed with the GOP dignitaries alongside Fatmir Mediu<\/a>, a former Albanian defense minister who has built close ties to Republicans including<\/a> Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Berisha also posed with<\/a> in Dallas.<\/p>\n These interactions were notable in part because the US State Department, during the Biden presidency in 2021, designated<\/a> Berisha a \u201cpersona non grata\u201d due to \u201chis involvement in significant corruption.\u201d Berisha faces criminal charges in Albania over those allegations. At the time, the department had barred Berisha from entering the United States. But a few months ago, the Trump administration reversed course, granting him a visa waiver that allowed him to travel to the convention.<\/p>\n In posts on X, Berisha characterized his backstage confabs in Dallas as important meetings in which he alleged that his chief political foe, Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama, is a corrupt beneficiary of Albanian drug smuggling. Rama denies those allegations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe presented to the senior officials of President Trump\u2019s administration and Congress the truth about the narcostate in Albania,\u201d Berisha posted<\/a> in Albanian. \u201cThe consequences for the economy and the demographic blow from Rama\u2019s regime must come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n Berisha asserted that<\/a> his interaction with Blanche and Woodward was no mere photo op, but \u201can important meeting for Albania-US relations.\u201d<\/p>\n N\u00eb Konvent\u00ebn Republikane n\u00eb Dallas, s\u00eb bashku me z. Fatmir Mediu, pata nderin t\u00eb takoja Prokurorin e P\u00ebrgjithsh\u00ebm t\u00eb SHBA, Todd Blanche, dhe Zv. Prokurorin e P\u00ebrgjithsh\u00ebm, Stanley Woodward Jr. Nj\u00eb takim i r\u00ebnd\u00ebsish\u00ebm p\u00ebr marr\u00ebdh\u00ebniet Shqip\u00ebri\u2013SHBA. pic.twitter.com\/f7S5tpLZsk<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sali Berisha (@saliberisha_) September 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n It remains unclear what exactly Berisha was doing in Dallas. The Justice Department did not respond to questions about his meeting with Blanche. Spokespersons for the Republican National Committee and for Berisha\u2019s political party, the Democratic Party of Albania, didn\u2019t respond to questions either. And Republicans involved in organizing the event did not respond to questions about how Berisha\u2019s attendance was arranged.<\/p>\n The midterm convention was, in effect, a Republican fundraiser, with attendees asked to pony up thousands of dollars just to get in the door. Prices varied by state, but an invitation sent by the California GOP showed a price tag of $5,000 just for a balcony seat, with a tiered system in which the top level, \u201cGolden VIP Access,\u201d cost $250,000. A person who attended the convention told Mother Jones that the Florida GOP initially asked for a minimum contribution of $20,000 for tickets to the event before reducing the price tag to around $2,000 amid a lack of demand. California and Florida Republicans did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Berisha traveled to Dallas at the invitation<\/a> of the International Democracy Union, an alliance of right-leaning political parties. In a letter, which Albanian news outlets reported on, the group described Berisha as part of a delegation. But it\u2019s not clear if anyone besides the Albanian officials traveled to the US as part of the group. The International Democracy Union did not respond to inquiries.<\/p>\n Berisha\u2019s photographs with Republican officials suggest a high level of access, according to the person who attended the event. It is illegal for foreign nationals to donate to US political campaigns. And the visit has raised questions from Berisha critics, including among Albanian Americans, about who helped Berisha gain entree to the officials.<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019d Berisha get in there?\u201d asked Gary Kokalari, president of Albanians for a Democratic Albania, an American group that advocates against corruption in the Balkan state, in an interview with Mother Jones.<\/p>\n Ahead of last year\u2019s May parliamentary election in Albania, Berisha\u2019s party hired<\/a> Chris LaCivita, co-manager of Trump\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign. Berisha\u2019s party also hired Tony Fabrizio, a Trump pollster, and Paul Manafort\u2014who helped run Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign and was later convicted of violating foreign lobbying laws\u2014as electoral advisers. In public appearances in Tirana, Albania\u2019s capital, though, LaCivita worked to link Berisha to Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to help elect a prime minister who is a true friend of the United States and who will successfully work with President Trump and the United States,\u201d he said<\/a> in one appearance. The Democratic Party of Albania reported<\/a> paying<\/a> LaCivita\u2019s firm, Advancing Strategies, more than $1.6 million for his work there.<\/p>\n LaCivita, who helped organize the Dallas event, has said that his work for Berisha was limited to electoral advice in Albanian domestic politics and that he has not lobbied the US government on behalf of Berisha. LaCivita told Mother Jones this week that he had \u201cno involvement\u201d in Berisha\u2019s presence at the midterm convention, adding that he is \u201cno longer involved\u201d with Berisha\u2019s Democratic Party of Albania. LaCivita declined to say whether he met with Berisha during the event.<\/p>\n LaCivita is already under scrutiny over his work for another Balkan politician. Early this month, LaCivita and James Blair, both of whom work for the Trump-controlled super PAC MAGA Inc., traveled to a semi-autonomous Serbian enclave in Bosnia and Herzegovina to advise the Bosnia Serb party of Milorad Dodik ahead of an election there, the New York Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dodik is a nationalist who has denied<\/a> international findings that Serbs engaged in genocide against Bosnians during that country\u2019s civil war. He has also faced<\/a> US sanctions over his push for the Republika Srpska to secede from Bosnia, in defiance of the US-brokered Dayton Accords of 1995 that created Bosnia\u2019s complex government. LaCivita and Blair faced criticism from Republicans because their work for Dodik appeared to interrupt their work supporting GOP candidates ahead of the US midterms. Trump last week threatened<\/a> to<\/a> \u201cterminate\u201d LaCivita and Blair if their outside work created a \u201cconflict.\u201d<\/p>\n Dodik\u2019s government has employed an array of Trump-linked lobbyists, who last year succeeded in winning removal of sanctions on the Bosnian Serb leader. Berisha has pursued a similar plan. The Democratic Party of Albania employs Continental Strategy LLP, a firm that includes a former top aide to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the daughter of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, to lobby for the removal of Berisha\u2019s State Department designation. Continental\u2019s Justice Department filings have noted<\/a> extensive<\/a> contacts<\/a> with the State Department, including with Dan Holler, a longtime Rubio aide who works as counselor in the department.<\/p>\n Berisha denies corruption charges, and Continental has asserted<\/a> that the Albanian leader was a victim of a politicized sanction process that constituted the kind of \u201cweaponization\u201d Trump himself claims to have faced.<\/p>\n Continental said it has been paid $750,000 for this work. The payments came through a murky arrangement<\/a> involving an organization called the \u201cMake Albania Great Again Foundation\u201d\u2014which was established<\/a> by a New Jersey contractor at a suburban residential address last year around the time the lobbying contract began, picked up the tab.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Continental did not answer questions this week about the origin of funds but said that the firm had \u201cfiled all appropriate paperwork and complied with all requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.\u201d The spokesperson said that Continental \u201cplayed no role\u201d in Berisha\u2019s visit to Dallas.<\/p>\n Continental\u2019s lobbying appeared to bear fruit this summer when the State Department issued<\/a> the waiver that allowed Berisha to travel to the United States for the GOP convention. While Berisha has said the waiver resolved his US designation, the State Department has not confirmed that.<\/p>\n The department has not taken down its 2021 designation of Berisha, which said he was designated due \u201ccorrupt acts,\u202fsuch as misappropriation of public funds and interfering with public processes, including using his power for his own benefit and to enrich his political allies and his family members at the expense of the Albanian public\u2019s confidence in their government institutions and public officials.\u201d<\/p>\n The State Department did not answer questions about the status of Berisha\u2019s persona non grata designation.<\/p>\n These allegations continue to complicate Berisha\u2019s political plans. He still faces charges in Albania<\/a>\u00a0alleging that he corruptly helped his son-in-law privatize public land to build apartment complexes in Tirana, Albania\u2019s capital. Berisha, who denies those charges, also faces a ban on traveling<\/a> to the United Kingdom. The new US Ambassador to Albania, Eric Wendt, recently declined to meet with Berisha, in what Albanian media outlets have described<\/a> as a<\/a> pointed snub.<\/p>\n Berisha is a political survivor who has staved off<\/a> challenges to his control of Albania\u2019s opposition and still hopes replace Rama, who appears politically weakened by widespread protests in Tirana\u2014demonstrations prompted in part by Rama\u2019s approval of a luxury resort being developed by Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Albania\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n While the Tirana protests against Rama have been characterized<\/a> as anti-Trump, Berisha continues to tout his own ties to the US president. And he clearly regards his Dallas visit\u2014and his photos with high-level Trump administration officials\u2014as a valuable assets in the effort.<\/p>\n \t\t\t