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Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Europe panel will release a report on Tuesday laying the groundwork for oversight of the Trump administration’s Balkans policy should their party win a majority.
The report by Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts, shared first with Semafor, includes a previously unreported letter raising concerns over how the administration encouraged officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina to award a key pipeline contract to a company owned by former Trump adviser Mike Flynn’s brother, Joseph Flynn.
It also includes the administration’s previously unreported response to that letter, as well as to another pushing back on the decision to lift sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik.
Keating, the top Democrat on the committee’s Europe panel, was joined by every other panel Democrat as well as the top Democrat on the full committee. The panel will hold a hearing Tuesday morning on the Balkans.
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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Dodik and other Serbian officials in Bosnia amid concerns that their recent actions could destabilize the region. Republika Srpska, the Serbian enclave, has devoted at least $9 million to winning over the Trump administration since the president’s second inauguration.
Tuesday’s report raises questions about Joseph Flynn and Jesse Binnall’s campaign to build the Bosnian Southern Interconnection Gas Pipeline, worth some $1.16 billion, “despite no prior energy sector or regional experience.” The pair sought to profit from Bosnia’s energy sector “at the expense of the Bosnian people,” the report argues, including by establishing AAFS Infrastructure & Energy four days after US and Bosnian officials discussed the possibility of a US firm building the pipeline.
“I am troubled that the potential awarding of this contract to an inexperienced firm decreases the likelihood the pipeline will be put into operation,” Keating wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in April. “Additionally, the personal and political ties between AAFS and the Trump administration represent an unfair conflict of interest.”
A State Department official argued in response that “the decisions to offer a concession for the Southern Interconnection and to select a US company as the lead investor were the
sovereign choices made by Federation of BiH officials.” That “contradicts the Trump administration’s policy decisions, which advocated for AAFS to be the sole concessionaire for the project,” according to the report.
“Our involvement began when Bosnian government officials approached AAFS directly about participating,” Binnall told Semafor, calling the pipeline “a critically important piece of infrastructure for America’s and region’s energy future.”
“We then engaged with career officials at the US Embassy, the standard, expected practice for any US-based company operating abroad on a project of this scale,” he added.
Adrian Elimian contributed to this report.