Trump official helped fugitive foreign justice minister flee prosecution: report

A foreign minister accused of a slew of crimes, including stealing from a fund for crime victims, was able to flee his country with the help of a Trump official, according to a new report.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro faces more than two dozen charges in his country related to alleged misuse of funds for political gain, according to reporting by Reuters. He was a member of Poland's right-wing nationalist Law and Justice Party.

Ziobro originally fled his country in 2025 to live in Hungary, where the Trump-endorsed authoritarian former Prime Minister Viktor Orban gave him asylum. Soon after Orban lost his election in April to a pro-EU rival, Ziobro came to the U.S. in May, per reporting by Reuters.

According to three sources who spoke to Reuters, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau "instructed senior State Department officials to facilitate and approve a visa for a fugitive former Polish cabinet minister."

The new Hungarian prime minister, Peter Magyar, "had said that he would extradite him to Poland on his first day in office," according to Reuters. Landau was able to secure a visa for Ziobro just ahead of Magyar's swearing-in on May 9, Reuters added.

"While the Trump administration has made it a priority to support conservative views in Europe, granting a visa to a politician facing criminal charges by a U.S.-allied government is highly unusual," according to Reuters. "

Reuters described Ziobro as "the architect of changes to the Polish judicial system that the EU has said undermined the rule of law during the 2015-2023 rule of the conservative Law and Justice party."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters on Tuesday that "we will certainly be very consistent, and no one can expect us to give up" on trying to bring Ziobro into Polish court, according to Reuters.