Former Polish Justice Minister Ziobro flees to US

Zbigniew Ziobro is wanted in Poland over the alleged misuse of public funds and the deployment of Pegasus spyware against political opponents.

May 10, 2026 2:54 pm CET

By Bartosz Brzeziński and Jordyn Dahl

Fugitive former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro is now in the United States courtesy of a visa from President Donald Trump after fleeing Hungary.

Ziobro had been in Hungary since 2025 after former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán granted the disgraced minister asylum. New Hungarian leader Péter Magyar, however, promised to launch extradition proceedings against Ziobro upon taking office.

Ziobro is wanted in Poland over the alleged misuse of public funds and the deployment of Pegasus spyware against political opponents. He has consistently denied the charges, calling the investigation a political vendetta from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Ziobro confirmed his arrival in the U.S. in an on-air interview with the right-wing Polish broadcaster TV Republika on Sunday evening.

“The United States is freedom,” Ziobro said. “Freedom you can actually fight for.”

Onet reported he had received a U.S. journalist visa linked to the station, which declined to confirm or deny the report. According to Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Trump personally approved the visa over the objections of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. ambassador in Warsaw, Tom Rose.

During the interview, TV Republika, long sympathetic to Ziobro and his Law and Justice (PiS) party, announced it had hired him as its political commentator in the U.S.

Ziobro called the criminal charges against him “fabricated” and said he would fight extradition before a U.S. court rather than return to Poland. He accused Tusk of interfering in his case, including by posting on social media that Ziobro would be arrested while he still had parliamentary immunity. “Donald Tusk cannot write that tweet” in the United States, he said.

Polish Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said Sunday his ministry would launch extradition proceedings against Ziobro. The foreign ministry said on Sunday it had no official information of his whereabouts, adding that his Polish passport had been revoked. Ziobro told TV Republika he had traveled on an asylum-related document issued by Hungary.