As if Secretary of State Antony Blinken weren’t embroiled in enough foreign debacles, he now stands accused of meddling in Albanian elections on behalf of billionaire financier George Soros and is being sued for defamation in an international court as a result.

One of Blinken’s curious first actions on taking office last year was to sanction the former president and prime minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, the anti-Communist ally of Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, who has been in opposition for eight years, and who is a vocal opponent of Soros and his Open Society Foundations, which has been pushing judicial and electoral “reform” in Albania.

In an official statement and accompanying tweet last April, Blinken alleged that Berisha is “corrupt” and had “undermined democracy in Albania,” and barred him, his wife and two children from entering the US.

Berisha strenuously denies the allegations, is outraged that Blinken never provided any proof, claims the US government is trying to prop up the socialist Albanian government of Soros ally Prime Minister Edi Rama and has launched a defamation action against the secretary in a Paris court. Last year, the correctional tribunal of Paris agreed to hear his case.

“Never in my life was I accused by a person or an institution of corruption,” Berisha said on the phone from the Albanian capital, Tirana. “The opposite was true. I worked very closely with the US government in fighting corruption.” The problem with Soros

He says the sanctions are retaliation for his attempt to declare Soros “persona non grata” in Albania after he grew concerned at the malign influence of Soros’ Open Society Foundations on his country. George Soros Billionaire investor George Soros in Vienna, Austria, June 21, 2019. REUTERS

“I’ve never had a personal problem with George Soros. The problem is first he helped Albania to have civil society and I was thankful, but in a short time, it became crystal clear that he was creating a monastic model of civil society …

“The Soros group dictated everything. So we have now a justice system, totally controlled by the government … The heads of judiciary institutions, in violation of constitutional laws, are for the moment former Communist prosecutors.”

Berisha, a cardiologist who led the movement to topple Albania’s Communist dictatorship, served as the first non-Communist president of Albania from 1992 and later as its prime minister and opposition leader.

US Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) smells a rat, and has demanded three times that Blinken provide evidence to back up his corruption allegations against Berisha. During a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting last June, Zeldin said the move came “seemingly out of nowhere.”

Zeldin said Berisha “was also known to be an aggressive opponent of George Soros. What specific information can you share with the committee at this time to justify this dramatic move?”

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