During the Republican Party’s “midterm convention” last month, GOP leaders argued that a Democratic victory in November would cause a Marxist takeover of America.

“It’s going to be a communist country if they win,” President Donald Trump said from the stage—one of more than 60 reported references to the red menace made by speakers at the Dallas event.

But backstage, top Republicans were feting an actual ex-communist. Sali Berisha, an octogenarian leader of Albania’s opposition party, posted pictures of himself with Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward; former DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin; Medicare and Medicaid administrator Mehmet Oz; Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters; Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford; Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers; and conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, among others.

Berisha—who began his career as a member of the Balkan state’s communist party under the regime of repressive Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha—wasn’t alone. He posed with the GOP dignitaries alongside Fatmir Mediu, a former Albanian defense minister who has built close ties to Republicans including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Berisha also posed with in Dallas.

These interactions were notable in part because the US State Department, during the Biden presidency in 2021, designated Berisha a “persona non grata” due to “his involvement in significant corruption.” 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.

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.

“We presented to the senior officials of President Trump’s administration and Congress the truth about the narcostate in Albania,” Berisha posted in Albanian. “The consequences for the economy and the demographic blow from Rama’s regime must come to an end.”

Berisha asserted that his interaction with Blanche and Woodward was no mere photo op, but “an important meeting for Albania-US relations.”

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’s political party, the Democratic Party of Albania, didn’t respond to questions either. And Republicans involved in organizing the event did not respond to questions about how Berisha’s attendance was arranged.

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, “Golden VIP Access,” 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.

Berisha traveled to Dallas at the invitation 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’s 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.

Berisha’s 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.

“How’d Berisha get in there?” 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.

Ahead of last year’s May parliamentary election in Albania, Berisha’s party hired Chris LaCivita, co-manager of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Berisha’s party also hired Tony Fabrizio, a Trump pollster, and Paul Manafort—who helped run Trump’s 2016 campaign and was later convicted of violating foreign lobbying laws—as electoral advisers. In public appearances in Tirana, Albania’s capital, though, LaCivita worked to link Berisha to Trump.

“We 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,” he said in one appearance. The Democratic Party of Albania reported paying LaCivita’s firm, Advancing Strategies, more than $1.6 million for his work there.

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 “no involvement” in Berisha’s presence at the midterm convention, adding that he is “no longer involved” with Berisha’s Democratic Party of Albania. LaCivita declined to say whether he met with Berisha during the event.

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.

Dodik is a nationalist who has denied international findings that Serbs engaged in genocide against Bosnians during that country’s civil war. He has also faced 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’s 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 to “terminate” LaCivita and Blair if their outside work created a “conflict.”

Dodik’s 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’s State Department designation. Continental’s Justice Department filings have noted extensive contacts with the State Department, including with Dan Holler, a longtime Rubio aide who works as counselor in the department.

Berisha denies corruption charges, and Continental has asserted that the Albanian leader was a victim of a politicized sanction process that constituted the kind of “weaponization” Trump himself claims to have faced.

Continental said it has been paid $750,000 for this work. The payments came through a murky arrangement involving an organization called the “Make Albania Great Again Foundation”—which was established by a New Jersey contractor at a suburban residential address last year around the time the lobbying contract began, picked up the tab.

A spokesperson for Continental did not answer questions this week about the origin of funds but said that the firm had “filed all appropriate paperwork and complied with all requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.” The spokesperson said that Continental “played no role” in Berisha’s visit to Dallas.

Continental’s lobbying appeared to bear fruit this summer when the State Department issued 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.

The department has not taken down its 2021 designation of Berisha, which said he was designated due “corrupt acts, such 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’s confidence in their government institutions and public officials.”

The State Department did not answer questions about the status of Berisha’s persona non grata designation.

These allegations continue to complicate Berisha’s political plans. He still faces charges in Albania alleging that he corruptly helped his son-in-law privatize public land to build apartment complexes in Tirana, Albania’s capital. Berisha, who denies those charges, also faces a ban on traveling 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 as a pointed snub.

Berisha is a political survivor who has staved off challenges to his control of Albania’s opposition and still hopes replace Rama, who appears politically weakened by widespread protests in Tirana—demonstrations prompted in part by Rama’s approval of a luxury resort being developed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Albania’s coast.

While the Tirana protests against Rama have been characterized as anti-Trump, Berisha continues to tout his own ties to the US president. And he clearly regards his Dallas visit—and his photos with high-level Trump administration officials—as a valuable assets in the effort.

This post was shared from Mother Jones.