In June 2020, Kosovo and Serbia had not publicly been engaged in talks for 19 months when Grenell and the Trump administration were to host Thaçi and Vucic in Washington, DC, for diplomatic discussions. Although Serbia had never recognized Kosovo’s independence, Grenell emphasized at CPAC last year that both men were forward-looking leaders who wanted to ease relations between the nations. The meeting was to take place on June 27.

On June 24, 2020, Smith’s office suddenly issued a press release announcing it had charged the sitting president with the ten counts two months earlier on April 24 — charges that appeared not to have been made public before then. The release alleges Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, and others “are criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders.” Smith “deemed it necessary to issue this public notice of charges because of repeated efforts by Hashim Thaçi and Kadri Veseli to obstruct and undermine the work of the KSC”.

Grenell has contended that after he informed Bruce Schwartz, deputy assistant attorney general and counselor for International Affairs at the DOJ, of the deal, the DOJ “tipped off Smith,” who “jumped to indict” Thaçi.

“His Kosovo case is falling apart and his own witnesses there are now claiming he and his team at The Hague faked CIA officials to intimidate them,” he added.

• the previous prosecutor investigated for years but concluded there was nothing
• Jack Smith came up with nothing new