Republika Srpska's government has paid millions of dollars to lobbyists and consultants close to Donald Trump. One firm, Continental Strategy, employs the White House chief of staff's daughter, arranged her mother's meeting with the entity's leadership and recommended Trump's top political advisers to its government. Several of those consultants stood behind Milorad Dodik at his party's final campaign rally.

Republika Srpska's government has paid Continental Strategy, a lobbying firm with close ties to Donald Trump, $35,000 a month since February to arrange meetings with "key stakeholders" in the US executive and legislative branches. In August the firm organised a visit to the Bosnian Serb entity, at the government's request, by Katie Wiles, a Continental Strategy partner and the daughter of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and John V. Calce, a Texas energy executive whose refining company is partly owned by Donald Trump Jr., the New York Times reported.

Alejandro Garcia, the Continental Strategy partner registered to lobby for Republika Srpska, recommended James Blair and Chris LaCivita, two of Trump's most senior political advisers, to the government. On 21 September Susie Wiles received Željka Cvijanović, the Serb member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency and a senior figure in Dodik's SNSD party, at the White House; a White House official told CBS News that Garcia arranged the meeting.

On 2 October Garcia, Blair and Andrew H. Smith, a lawyer at Boies Schiller Flexner, the law firm retained by Republika Srpska's government, stood in the rows behind Dodik at SNSD's final campaign rally in Banja Luka, according to photographs and television footage reviewed by Detektor, the Bosnian investigative outlet. Representatives of at least three US firms paid from the entity's budget attended the rally of a single party.

Dodik has met Vladimir Putin 11 times since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Trump administration lifted US sanctions on him in October 2025, after a lobbying campaign whose contracts named that goal. Bosnian law bars parties from accepting free services from foreign entities or using public money in campaigns.

The money

Continental Strategy registered Republika Srpska as a foreign principal with the Justice Department on 16 February. Carlos Trujillo, the firm's founder and a former US ambassador to the Organization of American States, signed the engagement letter on 3 February. It sets a retainer of $35,000 a month "for federal lobbying services" and runs to February 2027. The client contact is Nemanja Kovačević, an assistant minister in Republika Srpska's Ministry for European Integration and International Cooperation.

Continental Strategy received almost $240,000 from February to the end of August, its filings show, according to Detektor. Its first supplemental statement, for the period to 28 February, lists Trujillo and Garcia on the account. Katie Wiles is not named in the firm's February and March filings on Republika Srpska.

America First Refining, which Calce runs and in which Trump Jr. holds a minority stake, and a predecessor company have paid Continental Strategy $750,000 to lobby the White House and the Energy Department for a refinery in Brownsville, Texas, which Trump endorsed on social media in March. Garcia is the registered lobbyist. Telekom Srbija, majority-owned by the Serbian state, has been a Continental Strategy client since January.

Boies Schiller Flexner paid Blair and LaCivita several hundred thousand dollars each, the Times reported. Smith, who worked on Trump's first campaign and in his first administration and represents one of Trump's companies in a lawsuit, was hired by Republika Srpska's government before the election.

Tactic COC and CRB Global, firms in which the former Trump aides Caroline Wren and Barry Bennett are registered agents, have each held $100,000-a-month contracts with the same ministry since mid-2025, Detektor reported from FARA records. The Times put their combined receipts during Trump's second term at at least $800,000, for work that included seeking the removal of US sanctions on Republika Srpska officials.

DCI Group, a US public relations firm, signed a $750,000 contract in February for communications on relations with the United States. Detektor found on 5 October that DCI distributes the content of sanctionchristianschmidt.com, a site registered on 16 September that calls for US sanctions on Christian Schmidt, the former High Representative overseeing the Dayton Peace Agreement. Kovačević declined to say whether the site falls under the contract.

Zell & Associates International Advocates, run by Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, paid Eugene Kontorovich, a George Mason University law professor, $65,000 between August and December 2025 for consulting connected to Republika Srpska, Detektor reported. Haaretz reported that Zell's firm would be paid $840,000, which Zell called "incomplete, inaccurate and therefore misleading." Zell signed a contract with the government in December 2024 worth $1 million for a year plus a bonus tied to the removal of US sanctions on Dodik, CNN reported; Zell told CNN the bonus was cancelled in line with US law. Republika Srpska's government told Detektor that "contacts with consulting firms bear a classification of secrecy."

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty counted at least $8.3 million paid to 15 firms over the decade to the end of 2025, describing the figure in places as contract value and noting that redacted contracts make the true total higher. Its cut-off excludes 2026 contracts such as those of Continental Strategy and DCI. Keating's figure of about $8.9 million paid to 11 firms since January 2025 comes from an OCCRP analysis of filings through May 2026 that does not state its method; the report's own table says it includes monthly contract rates. The Times's figure of more than $4 million since 2025 covers only recipients linked to Trump. The three figures overlap and measure different things, so none can be added to another.

The access

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's former personal lawyer, spoke at a rally for Dodik in Banja Luka on 25 February 2025, the day before a Bosnian court convicted Dodik, and told the crowd: "You have excellent leadership." Giuliani later hosted Dodik on his podcast, and Flynn and the activist Laura Loomer publicly urged support for him, CNN reported when the sanctions were lifted.

Cvijanović pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the Southern Interconnection gas pipeline on 2 February 2026, nine days before Continental Strategy's agreement with the government took effect. Dodik, Cvijanović and Ana Trišić Babić, Republika Srpska's acting president, came to Washington for the National Prayer Breakfast that week. Dodik met Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who he wrote "deeply understands how essential strength, principled leadership" are to freedom, European Western Balkans reported. He also met House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican congressmen Blake Moore and Andy Ogles, and was received at the White House by Karoline Leavitt, then press secretary, Türkiye Today and Detektor reported. Continental Strategy's filing for the period to 28 February records "No Political Activity" for Republika Srpska.

Paolo Zampolli, Trump's special envoy for global partnerships, visited Banja Luka the same month, meeting Dodik, according to Detektor, and Prime Minister Savo Minić to discuss financing for solar and hydroelectric projects, according to the government. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau then wrote to the government that Zampolli "has absolutely no authority to speak for our administration outside the field of culture," according to emails published by Politico. The State Department ended Zampolli's appointment on 15 October.

Garcia arranged meetings for Republika Srpska with three White House officials, Walker Barrett, Jarrod Agen and Richard Walters, according to filings cited by Semafor. Agen, executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council, received Cvijanović at the White House on 3 March to discuss energy projects in Republika Srpska.

Republika Srpska's government asked Calce, also a director of TXC Energy, which shares America First Refining's address in Addison, Texas, to study a pipeline carrying natural gas from Croatia into the Western Balkans. Continental Strategy organised his August visit at the government's request, three people familiar with the arrangement told the Times, and Garcia was in Republika Srpska at the time.

Continental Strategy told CBS News on 8 October that Katie Wiles had travelled "on business for another Continental Strategy client", a US company "invited to do a feasibility study in the region", which she had supported with strategic communications for more than two years, without naming the company or mentioning the government's request.

During the trip Katie Wiles posted a photograph of herself holding a rifle beside Željko Budimir, Republika Srpska's interior minister, at the RIS shooting range in Laktaši, captioned "mostly work + some serious fun!" CBS News confirmed the location from satellite imagery and earlier posts from the range. Her biography was removed from Continental Strategy's website by the afternoon of 8 October, the New Republic reported. Evi Kokalari, the activist who first circulated the photograph, wrote that unnamed sources told her Telekom Srbija paid for the travel; Telekom Srbija said it "neither financed nor organised the trips by US political advisers to Republika Srpska."

On 21 September Cvijanović posted a photograph with Susie Wiles at the White House. "We have opened some doors that used to be unimaginable," she told Srpske Novine. "We agreed to come back here soon, in roughly a month to a month and a half."

Continental Strategy and the White House said Katie Wiles had no part in arranging that meeting, does not lobby the US government for any client and does not discuss work with her mother. Melissa Stone, the firm's spokeswoman, said it "meticulously complies with every ethical and legal requirement." Katie Wiles and Calce did not respond to the Times.

The federal conflict-of-interest statute, 18 U.S.C. § 208, covers the financial interests of an official, a spouse and minor children, and so does not reach Susie Wiles's adult daughter. Ethics regulations at 5 C.F.R. § 2635.502 ask officials to weigh whether their impartiality would be questioned in a matter involving a party that a close relative is or represents; Katie Wiles is a partner at the firm registered to represent Republika Srpska.

The election

Garcia stood behind Dodik as he spoke to reporters outside Banja Luka's Borik hall on 2 October and, inside, in the row behind Dodik, Prime Minister Savo Minić and Cvijanović as the anthem played. Blair sat in the audience. Smith appears beside them in photographs SNSD released. Two FARA-registered agents of DCI Group were also present, and so was Budimir.

A man resembling LaCivita stood behind Dodik outside the hall; Detektor could not confirm his identity, although the Times had reported that LaCivita travelled with Blair. A photograph published by the broadcaster TK3 shows Igor Kalabukhov, Russia's ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Luka Petrović, director of Republika Srpska's state electricity company, with Garcia and a man TK3 names as LaCivita behind them.

Blair, LaCivita, Garcia and Smith attended SNSD's victory celebration on election night, 4 October, with Wren and Bennett, the Times reported. Dodik thanked Trump that night for creating the conditions for his party's win and thanked Putin for his support.

Bosnian law bars parties from accepting contributions, including free services, from foreign legal entities, directly or through intermediaries, and bars the use of public money in campaigns. Ivana Korajlić, director of Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said attendance alone does not breach those rules. "If they were paid from the budget and advised the party, that would be a broader abuse that should be examined," she told Detektor. "That could already be a criminal offence."

Sources for the Times said Blair and LaCivita worked for the government and not for SNSD. A source familiar with the trip told Axios they spent about 48 hours giving "strategic advice on Election Integrity." CBS News, citing the Times, described the work as helping Dodik's party campaign. The Times reported that in Republika Srpska the government and the party that controls it are "essentially one and the same." Garcia, Blair, LaCivita, Smith, MAGA Inc. and SNSD did not respond when Detektor asked whether the consultants had advised the party while paid from the entity's budget, and no published contract or filing shows what services Blair and LaCivita provided or for whom.

Semafor reported on 8 October, citing three sources, that Continental Strategy helped organise Blair and LaCivita's trip and that Garcia first approached LaCivita. Stone said the report was wrong.

Blair, deputy White House chief of staff until the spring, runs MAGA Inc., Trump's super PAC; LaCivita, who ran Trump's 2024 campaign with Susie Wiles, is a senior adviser to it. Trump wrote on Truth Social on 7 October that he would ask who else they worked for and "if there's a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately!" By that evening he was telling reporters they had no conflict. Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said on CNN they "should get out of that relationship" with Republika Srpska "very, very quickly." A MAGA Inc. spokesman told the Times the two held a call on the latest polling during the trip.

Cvijanović kept the Serb seat on the presidency with 288,605 votes in the preliminary count, against 138,809 for Marinko Božović of the Serb Democratic Party, on a record-low turnout of about 42 per cent. OSCE observers reported "serious shortcomings in ensuring secrecy of the vote."

Russia, energy and the sanctions

Dodik met Putin in Moscow on 29 September, five days before the vote, European Western Balkans reported. "We will not allow sanctions against Russia," Dodik said. The lobbying contracts in the Justice Department's records are paid by Republika Srpska's government, and none of the filings or reporting cited here shows Russian financing or direction of the US firms.

Mladen Filipović, head of Republika Srpska's office in Vienna, signed a $4 million contract on 6 September 2025 with Dickens & Madson Canada, run by Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence officer, to promote independence from Bosnia and Herzegovina, RFE/RL reported. Bosnia's state prosecutor's office declined in May 2026 to investigate Filipović. In late September Bosnia's Constitutional Court ordered Republika Srpska to stop paying under the contract and barred budget funding for lobbying aimed against the constitution.

The Southern Interconnection, the pipeline Cvijanović raised with Lutnick, would carry gas from Croatia into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. US Embassy officials in Sarajevo met Federation coalition leaders on 20 November 2025 to discuss a US company building it, according to Keating's report. Four days later Joseph Flynn, brother of Trump's first national security adviser, and Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who has represented Trump, incorporated AAFS Infrastructure & Energy in Wyoming. The Federation parliament named AAFS's Sarajevo subsidiary as investor on 15 April 2026. Keating's report puts AAFS's prospective gain from the pipeline and adjacent power plants at $1.3 billion and says the State Department pressed for AAFS as sole concessionaire. Binnall told Semafor that "Bosnian government officials approached AAFS directly."

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control removed four Dodik associates, including his former chief of staff Danijel Dragičević, from its sanctions list on 17 October 2025, and the Republika Srpska National Assembly withdrew most of its laws challenging the Dayton agreement the next day. Dodik met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on 28 October. On 29 October the office removed Dodik, his children Igor and Gorica, Cvijanović and their companies and associates, 48 listings in all, without published explanation.

The State Department attributed the decision to "constructive actions" by the National Assembly, and an administration official told CBS News the sanctions were lifted to prevent instability in the Balkans. Keating's report calls the delisting corrupt, citing its timing and the payments around it, and records no explanation from the Treasury Department, which had not answered his November 2025 questions by September.

Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor whose corruption sentence Trump commuted in 2020 before pardoning him in February 2025, signed his firm RRB Strategies' contract with Republika Srpska on 27 March 2025. The minister for European integration, Zlatan Klokić, signed for the government. The proposal filed with the contract lists as goals publishing "articles highlighting the political motivations behind legal actions against President Dodik", advocating the removal of the Office of the High Representative and, as a long-term aim, working "to abolish and null-and-void sanctions against President Dodik, his family members." The retainer amount is illegible in the public copy.

RRB received $625,000 from Republika Srpska on 31 March 2025. In the following months it reported meetings for the entity with Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bernie Moreno, with Andrew Peek of the National Security Council and Colleen Hyland, then acting deputy assistant secretary of state for the Western Balkans, on 14 May, and with Lee Lipton of the State Department on 22 July and 8 October. It listed Michael Flynn as a consultant from 12 August, when it paid $100,000 to a company its filing associates with him. Flynn filed his own registration on 12 October, listing a fee of $100,000 a month for "strategic advice and counsel" and "introductions"; RRB's later statement gives 1 October as the end of his connection.

RRB's next receipt from Republika Srpska, $700,000 in "consulting fees", is dated 29 October 2025, the day the Treasury Department removed the sanctions on Dodik and his family.