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Mother Jones illustration; Daniel Torok\/White House\/Planet Pix; Armando Babani\/Zuma (2)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sali Berisha<\/span>\u2014the allegedly corrupt leader of Albania\u2019s opposition party\u2014wants help from Donald Trump. And Berisha, or someone backing him, is paying big bucks to get it.<\/p>\n Berisha is seeking removal of a \u201cpersona non grata\u201d designation imposed by the US government because of what the Biden-era State Department said was his involvement in \u201cin corrupt acts.\u201d Berisha\u2019s right-leaning Democratic Party of Albania recently hired Florida-based Continental Strategy to lobby the Trump administration under a contract that will pay the firm more than $6 million over two years. While lobbying disclosure forms<\/a> filed by Continental don\u2019t specifically mention the sanctions against Berisha, they note that the firm has already been in touch with the State Department on behalf of Berisha\u2019s party.<\/p>\n Continental employs a roster of lobbyists with ties to Trumpworld, including Katie Wiles, whose mother is White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. According to the Democratic Party of Albania, or DPA, the hefty tab for Continental\u2019s work is being picked up by the \u201cMake Albania Great Again Foundation\u201d\u2014an organization recently established by a New Jersey contractor and registered at a suburban residential address.<\/p>\n Berisha separately employs Chris LaCivita, who, along with Susie Wiles, led Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign. LaCivita says he was brought on to provide electoral advice for the country\u2019s parliamentary election next month, and that he is not advocating for Berisha in the United States. The veteran political operative has boosted<\/a> Berisha\u2019s efforts to sell himself in Albania as the candidate who can work with Trump. LaCivita has declined to say how he is being paid. (Trump, who is often willing to weigh in<\/a> on foreign elections, has not opined on the Albanian contest, or on Berisha\u2019s legal issues.)<\/p>\n The State Department in 2021 designated<\/a> Berisha, along with his wife, son and daughter, under an \u201canti-kleptocracy\u201d law<\/a> that allows the department to bar officials and immediate family members suspected of corruption from entering the United States.<\/p>\n Announcing that designation in 2021, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that<\/a> Berisha\u2014who served as Albania\u2019s prime minster in the 1990s and from 2005 to 2013\u2014has been \u201cinvolved in corrupt 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 In 2023, Albania\u2019s parliament stripped Berisha of<\/a> legal immunity. Last year, prosecutors in the country charged<\/a> him with corruptly helping his son-in-law privatize public land to build 17 apartment buildings in Tirana, Albania\u2019s capital. Berisha seems to be hoping that a victory in next month\u2019s election, along with the possibility of assistance from Washington, will help him clear up his legal troubles\u2014a truly <\/strong>Trump-like<\/a> turnabout.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a comparison that Berisha has encouraged<\/a>. He\u2019s blamed his prosecution on Prime Minister Edi Rama, the leader of the governing left-wing Socialist Party\u2014 and on an international leftist conspiracy led by the 94-year-old liberal philanthropist George Soros.<\/p>\n Continental Strategy <\/span>has deep ties to Trump administration figures, including to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has the power to undo Berisha\u2019s sanctions problem. In addition to Katie Wiles\u2014whom the firm promoted<\/a> to director of its DC and Jacksonville lobbying offices just after Trump named her mother as his chief of staff\u2014Continental employs Alberto Martinez, a former Senate chief of staff for Rubio. The firm\u2019s founder, Carlos Trujillo, is a former Florida congressman who Trump picked<\/a> as ambassador to the Organization of Latin American States during his first term.<\/p>\n In a Foreign Agents Registration Act registration<\/a> filed last week, the firm offered only a boilerplate description of its lobbying plans, saying its work involves steps like \u201cestablishing relationships with key stakeholders in the executive and legislative branches to facilitate policy development.\u201d<\/p>\n But Continental appears to have quickly begun using administration connections to make contact with the State Department, which has the authority to remove Berisha\u2019s designation. The firm\u2019s FARA filing notes an April 17 phone call with Dan Holler, Rubio\u2019s deputy chief of staff at State.<\/p>\n The Democratic Party of Albania also hired a separate law firm also run by Trujillo, Continental PLLC<\/a>, to do legal work on Berisha\u2019s behalf. Legal counsel is generally exempt<\/a> from FARA, meaning the firm would not have to publicly disclose details of those efforts.<\/p>\n Melissa Stone, a spokesperson for Continental, said the firm \u201cis supporting Berisha through their legal and lobby teams, all of which is being fully disclosed in accordance with the law.\u201d Stone noted that Wiles is not herself registered under FARA to lobby for the Albanian party. \u00a0<\/p>\n Continental\u2019s contract says it will be paid $250,000 per month over two years for the lobbying work work. But the DPA itself isn\u2019t paying the firm.<\/p>\n Instead, the work appears to be financed through a 73-year-old Albanian-American contractor in New Jersey. A contract filed as part of Continental\u2019s FARA registration lists Nuredin Seci as \u201cguarantor.\u201d (The Albanian Top Channel news network reported<\/a> that Seci is a member of Vatra, a US Albanian diaspora organization<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The DPA has told<\/a> reporters in Albania that Continental will be paid by a nonprofit called the \u201cMake Albania Great Again Foundation,\u201d which the party says is funded by Albanian-Americans. An organization with that name was established<\/a> on March 27 this year based at a Woodcliff Lake, N.J., residence that appears to be owned by Seci\u2019s daughter and son-in-law. The foundation does not have a website or a public footprint, nor does it appear in public listings of registered nonprofits. None of the family members responded to inquiries from Mother Jones<\/em>.<\/p>\n The opaque funding scheme has drawn criticism from Albanian Prime Minister Rama and, reportedly<\/a>, scrutiny from an Albanian anti-corruption unit. Albanian media has also questioned<\/a> the source of the funds Continental is receiving. Some Albanian press outlets compared<\/a> the financing setup to a 2017 lobbying contract in which the Democratic Party of Albania secured $500,000 in funding, also purportedly from a US businessman with Albanian ties, for lobbying the first Trump administration\u2014an arrangement that resulted in criminal charges<\/a>, though no conviction, against the party\u2019s prior leader.<\/p>\n Mother Jones <\/em>reported<\/a> in 2018 that the funds for the party\u2019s 2017 influence efforts appeared to come, via several shell companies, from Russia. And in 2023, when the State Department issued a summary of a US intelligence review detailing Russian efforts \u201cto shape foreign political environments in Moscow\u2019s favor,\u201d an administration official told the AFP<\/a> that Russia had spent roughly $500,000 backing the DPA in 2017. The DPA at the time was supporting some policies backed by Moscow. The DPA has denied receiving Russian backing. But last year, a team of investigative reporters at the BBC, the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation, and Finance Uncovered revealed<\/a> that a Scottish shell company that had paid the US lobbyist who worked in 2017 for the DPA had been secretly owned by a Moscow resident.<\/p>\n In 2017, the head of the DPA sought inroads with Trump, adopting a \u201cMake Albania Great Again\u201d slogan. Berisha has taken a similar tack in 2025, bragging to Albanians that his ties to Trump\u2019s circle will benefit the small country if he wins.<\/p>\n LaCivita has said<\/span> his work includes zero advocacy for Berisha in the United States. \u201cI was retained to organize and provide strategic political guidance on the [Albanian] Democrat Party and its coalition for the upcoming elections May 11,\u201d he told Mother Jones<\/em> via text. \u201cI do not lobby or consult in any other capacity other than political and campaigns\u00a0period.\u201d<\/p>\n LaCivita has not been shy, though, about helping Berisha tout his ties 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 LaCivita said at a February press conference in Tirana after signing on with Berisha. LaCivita called Rama \u201ca puppet of George Soros,\u201d adding, \u201cYou cannot be a puppet of George Soros and a friend of United States.\u201d<\/p>\n LaCivita\u2019s team advising Berisha appears to include<\/a> former Trump aide Paul Manafort\u2014who was convicted<\/a> in 2018 of crimes<\/a> that included secretly lobbying for Ukraine\u2019s former pro-Russian president\u2014as well as<\/a> longtime Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio. Trump pardoned<\/a> Manafort in 2020.<\/p>\n LaCivita, who has around 75,000 followers on X, has regularly tweeted<\/a> support<\/a> for Berisha and attacks on Rama, and he has amplified<\/a> Berisha\u2019s criticism of the sanctions imposed by Blinken.<\/p>\n LaCivita\u2019s rhetoric dovetails with efforts by Berisha allies in the US. In February, the DPA\u2019s press director published an op-ed<\/a> in the Washington Examiner<\/em> urging Rubio to lift the sanctions on the Berisha; the op-ed suggested that Soros, and his son Alex Soros, were partly responsible for the DPA leader\u2019s legal problems. A separate Examiner<\/em> opinion piece<\/a>\u2014headlined, \u201cAlbania lawfare? How Biden aided Soros\u2019s favorite narco-state\u201d\u2014cites Berisha\u2019s \u201cstriking\u201d similarities with Trump.<\/p>\n Another Berisha ally, Fetimir Mediu, met earlier this month<\/a> with GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and John Cornyn (Texas). Mediu previously negotiated the deal for LaCivita to advise the Democratic Party of Albania, both men have said<\/a>.<\/p>\n LaCivita has made clear the general message of the efforts to link Berisha to Trump. \u201cI\u2019m exporting MAGA,\u201d he told<\/a> the New York Times<\/em> in February. \u201cMake Albania Great Again!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n