U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau directed State Department officials to facilitate and approve a visa for fugitive former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who faces 26 criminal charges tied largely to an alleged misuse of a crime victi
When Poland’s former justice minister disappeared into Hungary and then resurfaced in the United States, the shock wasn’t just where he went. It was how quickly the process moved once a senior American diplomat got involved.
On May 19, it was reported that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau instructed senior State Department officials to facilitate and approve a visa for fugitive former Polish cabinet minister Zbigniew Ziobro. The visa would allow him to flee to the United States from Hungary. Polish prosecutors are seeking to prosecute Ziobro. the architect of changes to Poland’s judicial system that the European Union said. during the 2015-2023 rule of the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS). undermined the rule of law.
Ziobro faces 26 charges, stemming mainly from his alleged misuse of money for political gain from a crime victims fund. He has denied wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a politically motivated campaign by Poland’s ruling pro-European Union coalition.
In Washington. Landau directed senior officials from the State Department’s Consular Affairs Bureau in Washington to instruct the U.S. embassy in Budapest to issue a visa for Ziobro. Three people familiar with the matter said one of the visas was a journalist visa. The intervention. the sources said. enabled Ziobro to secure the visa ahead of Polish ally Hungary’s political calendar—specifically ahead of Magyar’s May 9 swearing-in as Hungary’s prime minister.
Landau learned of Ziobro’s case earlier this spring from Tom Rose, the U.S. ambassador to Poland. and considered the ex-minister someone who was unjustly prosecuted. according to a fourth source familiar with the matter. In directing the Consular Affairs Bureau officials to issue the visa, the No. 2 U.S. diplomat justified urgency by presenting it as “a national security issue,” one source said. Reuters was unable to determine the rationale for labeling it a national security matter. Landau declined to comment. and a State Department spokesperson said. “Due to visa record confidentiality. we have nothing to share on this matter.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Poland’s response has been blunt. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said before a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Poland would not stop trying to get Ziobro in front of a Polish court. “We will certainly be very consistent, and no one can expect us to give up,” he said.
Poland’s Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, speaking to public broadcaster TVP Info on Tuesday, said he was very surprised. “If someone in the U.S. in an important position believes that Ziobro is needed for national security… if he has indeed been granted some kind of extraordinary status. then I would like our ally to talk to us about this and see what evidence we have gathered in the case of Minister Ziobro. because this evidence is truly very strong. ” Zurek said.
Zurek added that prosecutors have an extradition request prepared, but Poland was considering when would be the best time to send it. “We will do everything to bring Mr. Ziobro to justice in Poland,” he said.
Ziobro’s trail has also raised questions in Budapest. Hungary’s former Prime Minister Viktor Orban granted him asylum in January. Polish authorities had hoped Orban’s defeat by pro-EU rival Peter Magyar in an April election would lead to Ziobro being returned to Poland. Magyar had said he would extradite Ziobro to Poland on his first day in office.
But at a press conference on Tuesday, Magyar said Ziobro had not traveled directly to the United States from Hungary. “I do not know whether he travelled from Vienna. Paris or Brussels. but he did not leave Hungary for the United States. ” Magyar said. “At present, his whereabouts are unknown even to the Hungarian authorities.”.
U.S. officials were not the only ones left without clarity. Reuters was unable to reach Ziobro in the United States. His lawyer in Poland, Bartosz Lewandowski, said he would convey questions to Ziobro, who did not respond.
The administration’s posture toward Europe’s conservative politics adds friction to the story. The Trump administration has said European conservatives are often targeted by “lawfare. ” a term used by supporters of Trump’s MAGA movement to describe what they say is the unjust weaponization of the judicial system against them. Critics in the United States. meanwhile. have leveled similar charges against Trump. saying his administration is using prosecutorial power to target perceived adversaries.
Ziobro’s case isn’t just about one man’s legal fate. He is the architect of court reforms that the European Union said reduced the independence of Poland’s judiciary while PiS was in power. He is accused of misusing money from the Justice Fund. designed to help victims of crime. including to purchase the Pegasus spyware system. which was allegedly used against domestic political opponents. Pegasus can turn a mobile phone into a spying device and has been used by various governments against opposition figures and journalists.
In Poland, officials have also been forced to account for practical implications of Ziobro’s exit. A Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Reuters last week that Warsaw would be asking Washington and Budapest for “the legal and factual basis” under which Ziobro was able to leave Hungary. Poland had already annulled his passports.
The timeline continues to tighten. A Polish broadcaster announced on May 10 that Ziobro had begun working as a TV commentator for TV Republika. In a May 10 appearance on TV Republika, Ziobro said, “I’m in the United States … It’s an incredibly complex, beautiful country, the world’s strongest democracy.”.
The case lands at a moment when U.S.-Poland military planning has also been in flux. The Pentagon last week canceled the deployment of 4,000 U.S. troops to the country, saying only that “it made the most sense for that brigade to not do its deployment in theater.”
Taken together, the details show how quickly a visa decision can reshape diplomatic calculations—especially when the person involved is facing criminal charges at home and has received asylum across Europe’s political divide.
Christopher Landau Zbigniew Ziobro Poland Hungary visa State Department Marco Rubio Donald Tusk Viktor Orban Peter Magyar Pegasus spyware rule of law PiS Law and Justice U.S.-Poland relations