Trump's pardon chief calls Ziobro prosecution 'Soviet-style,' warns of 'globalist' threat to Poland

The Washington meeting

Edward Martin, the US pardon attorney serving under President Donald Trump, revealed he met Zbigniew Ziobro in Washington several weeks ago. Martin described the former Polish justice minister as deeply thoughtful and serious, a man holding what Americans consider one of the highest offices in any government. The meeting, Martin said, was part of a broader Trump administration directive to identify and assist people targeted by politically motivated prosecutions.

When I became a partner in President Trump's firm, he said: find the people, the victims of lawfare, who were targeted by prosecutors and help them in particular.

The comparison to Trump

Martin drew a direct parallel between Ziobro and the American president, telling TV Republika that Ziobro is "in many ways like Trump." Both men, he argued, became targets of political and legal action after leaving high public office. Martin said that actions once considered standard for a justice minister are now being labeled as crimes, and that for Americans watching from abroad, the spectacle of a former attorney general being pursued by his own country's media, courts, and prime minister appears impossible to comprehend.

Things that every other justice minister did are now being called crimes. It's hard to even talk about it.

Soviet communism and the globalist return

In the interview's most incendiary passages, Martin compared the current Polish government's actions to Soviet-era repression. He noted that the Soviets were on Polish soil not so long ago and that the treatment of Ziobro "looks like Soviet communism, a return of the globalists." Martin also criticized Hungary's new government under Prime Minister Peter Magyar for withdrawing the asylum protection previously granted to Ziobro by Viktor Orbán's administration, calling the reversal a betrayal of rule-of-law principles.

The new Hungarian authorities have now shown their true face, and that is a real problem.

The legal case against Ziobro

Polish prosecutors are seeking to bring 26 charges against Zbigniew Ziobro in connection with alleged irregularities in the Justice Fund during the Law and Justice (PiS) government. In autumn 2025, the Sejm lifted Ziobro's parliamentary immunity and authorized his detention and arrest. Those measures were never executed because Ziobro left Poland, first traveling to Hungary where he received political asylum from the Orbán government, then departing for the United States on the day the new Magyar administration was sworn in.

A European Arrest Warrant for Ziobro is under consideration. Judge Tomasz Grochowicz, handling the ENA application, has asked the National Prosecutor's Office to clarify Ziobro's whereabouts, since an ENA requires the suspect to be on EU territory. Prosecutor Przemysław Nowak maintains the warrant remains justified even if Ziobro is in the United States, though the final decision rests with the court. On 11 June, the US State Department responded to a Polish diplomatic note on the matter, though the contents of that reply have not been disclosed.

Martin's warning to Poles

Martin framed the moment as a decisive one for Poland. He urged Poles to resist what he called a lawfare campaign designed to exhaust its targets financially and psychologically, forcing them to change jobs, worry their families, and spend fortunes on legal defense. He warned that mainstream media in both America and Poland would lie about events, and that the European Union was, in his view, the most aggressive actor in pushing globalist propaganda. Martin called on Poles to win elections, make their arguments heard, and understand that if such tactics can be used against Ziobro and Trump, they will eventually be used against ordinary citizens.

If they can do it to Ziobro, if they can do it to Trump, they will certainly do it to you and your neighbor.