What do Donald Trump and Edi Rama have in frequent?
They each hate Jack Smith.
President Trump hates him for making an attempt to ship him to jail.
Edi Rama, the prime minister of Albania, hates him for making an attempt to ship his pal to jail.
His pal is fellow Albanian Hashim Thaci, a former chief and spokesman of the Kosovo Liberation Military, on trial in The Hague over controversial struggle crime costs. They stem from the transient (1998-1999) however brutal Kosovo Warfare. He has denied the costs.
The struggle was an armed battle between Yugoslav/Serbian forces and Albanian separatists within the Albanian-populated province of Kosovo in Yugoslavia that ended with the NATO bombing of Serbia and Kosovo’s independence.
Through the struggle, Serbian chief Slobodan Milosevic ordered the ethnic cleaning of the bulk Albanians in Kosovo, burning villages and forcing some 700,000 Kosovo Albanians to hunt refuge in neighboring Albania, which touched off NATO intervention.
Kosovo is now an unbiased nation with shut ties to the U.S.
Thaci left research in Switzerland to affix the KLA when the preventing broke out, later turning into a key KLA consultant within the western-brokered peace talks. Albanians think about him a hero. The Serbs disagree.
After the struggle, Thaci grew to become the nation’s international minister and prime minister. It was at the moment that Thaci developed a friendship with Trump, who was serving his first time period as president.
Thaci was president of Kosovo when he and three others had been indicted in October 2020 earlier than the Kosovo Particular Chambers, a court docket made up of worldwide legal professionals and judges that was created to carry a trial exterior of Kosovo in The Hague.
The prosecutor who introduced the costs towards Thaci was Jack Smith, who on the time was the chief prosector of the court docket. Sure, the identical Jack Smith who later hounded and indicted Trump on the behest of Joe Biden.
Thaci on the time was enroute to Washington to fulfill with Trump initially of Trump’s first time period when Smith prematurely leaked information of the Thaci indictment to the press.
Trump had invited Thaci to fulfill with him and Serbian President Aleksander Vucic to iron out variations between the 2 international locations based mostly on financial pursuits. The assembly had been organized by Richard Grenell, Trump’s particular emissary.
Nevertheless, the extraordinary leak of the indictment blew the assembly up, embarrassing each Trump and Grenell, which was most likely the purpose.
Smith was later employed by the Biden administration to go after Trump out of concern that Trump, now out of workplace, would run for president once more in 2024.
Therefore the raid on Mar-a-Lago, the phony indictments on the mishandling of confidential doc, the phony indictments over the January 6 Capitol riots and all the opposite authorized bull they threw at Trump.
Now it’s Smith who’s below investigation by each the U.S. Justice Division and Congress.
All of this got here to thoughts when Rama, attending Trump’s preliminary Peace Board assembly on the White Home per week in the past, buttonholed Trump to speak about Smith and Thaci, who has been in detention for nearly six years.
The lengthy trial lastly ended final week, and a verdict is predicted inside three months. If discovered responsible Thaci may face 45 years in jail.
Earlier in ready remarks on serving to Gaza, Rama, with out naming him, introduced up Smith and the court docket, accusing each of failing “at each step to uphold the requirements of democratic justice.”
Following the assembly, Rama had an uncommon one-on-one apart with Trump, making his case to get Trump to one way or the other intercede to assist Thaci.
It was additionally a pleasant chat in that the towering Rama (6’ 7”) patted Trump on the arm and shoulder a few instances, one thing few folks do.
Rama later stated, “I conveyed (to Trump) our nationwide concern concerning the unbelievable masquerade of worldwide justice in The Hague in direction of Hashim Thaci and the liberators of Kosovo.”
Who is aware of what, if something, Trump will do. But when he can one way or the other free Thaci and stick it to Jack Smith, he’ll.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas reported from the Kosovo/Albania border in1999. He may be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
Former Justice Division particular counsel Jack Smith testifies earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee on the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP)
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