Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

Between 2017 and 2020, Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama, his advisors and the former minister of Infrastructure, Damian Gjiknuri, spent some $6,000 US while staying at the Trump International hotel in Washington DC, owned by then US President Donald Trump.

The details of these expenditures are part of a 156-page report called “White House for sale, How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump” that was produced by Democrats on the House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee.

The report says such payments were attempts to influence the then US President.

Using documents obtained following a legal battle by Mazars company, the report details expenses of foreign officials on various Trump-owned businesses, totaling $8.7 million.

“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief,” Congressman Jamie Raskin, the main Democrat member of the Committee, wrote in the foreword of the report.

According to the report, in January and March 2018, Rama’s advisors, Dorjan Duçka, Endri Fuga and Keisi Seferi, spent over $1,000 each in the Trump International Hotel. Rama himself spent $1,158 during a visit in March 2018. His former minister of Infrastructure Damian Gjiknuri spent $1,025 in June 2018 for a one-night stay.

Along with Albanian officials, Kosovo’s former deputy premier Behgjet Pacolli and other officials from Kosovo spent over $4,950 in the same hotel, the report shows.

At the time of President Trump’s election, the Albanian opposition Democratic Party, and its leader, Lulzim Basha, (whose Trump-like slogan was “Make Albania Great Again”) accused PM Rama’s ruling Socialist Party of endemic corruption and ties to organised crime.

Following the 2017 elections in Albania, the opposition organised protests and boycotted the parliament, claiming the government had won the elections by collusion with organised crime and vote buying.

As the parties in Albania fought each other, their clashes were transferred across the ocean, as both parties attempted to influence the Trump administration through lobbying campaigns.

Rama’s Socialists hired Brian Ballard, a Trump campaigner in Washington DC, for $20,000 a month. Rama’s rival, Basha, engaged Nicholas Muzin, former aide to US conservative Senator Ted Cruz and an advisor to the Trump campaign.

Through Muzin, Basha secured a photo opportunity with Trump and used it widely in his electoral campaign back home, albeit without success.

The report says Rama’s stay in the Trump International Hotel was connected with his meeting with the now disgraced former FBI counterespionage agent Charles McGonigal, who was sentenced in December 2023 to four years in jail for providing services to sanctioned Russian oligarch and Putin agent Oleg Deripaska.

“Federal prosecutors have alleged that on March 4, Mr Rama dined with Charles McGonigal, a former FBI counterintelligence chief, and Agron Neza, a New Jersey businessman who previously worked at an Albanian intelligence agency,” the report notes.

Rama chose to stay in the Trump hotel during his visit in March 2018. For the two-night stay, Rama and his advisors spent $3,474. They stayed on the same floor as Neza. Dorjan Duçka, another of Rama’s advisors, booked four rooms for the two nights on January 18 and 19 2018, for some $1,503.

US Congressmen found out also that Albania Former Minister of Energy Damian Gjiknuri chose the same hotel for his stay in DC on June 24 to 26 2018, paying some $1,025.66.

Albania parties spent huge sums on bids to influence US politics, often raising questions about the source of the money.