EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Celeste Maloy Calls For Sanctions Probe Into Ouster Of Aspiring Country’s Leader

A member of Congress is pressing the Treasury Department to investigate whether Bosnian officials engaged in sanctionable conduct surrounding the removal of former Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, according to a letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Republican Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy’s Aug. 31 letter asks the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to review allegations that Schmidt and members of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina interfered with the democratic process in Republika Srpska, the country’s Serbian-majority entity. A senior Bosnian Serb lawmaker subsequently told the DCNF that Bosnia and Herzegovina High Representative Christian Schmidt, election officials, prosecutors and judges involved in Dodik’s removal should face U.S. sanctions.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted Dodik in February 2025 of failing to implement decisions of the High Representative after he signed legislation that Schmidt had blocked from taking effect. An appeals panel upheld the conviction in June, leaving Dodik with a one-year prison sentence and a six-year ban on serving as president of Republika Srpska, according to the Court.

“I write regarding information recently submitted to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) concerning actions taken by then-High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt and the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC) to remove the democratically elected President of Republika Srpska,” Maloy wrote in the letter obtained by the DCNF.

Maloy said she understood OFAC had received materials alleging the conduct could constitute interference with a democratic process under existing Western Balkans sanctions authorities or sanctionable conduct under the Global Magnitsky program. She asked OFAC for an “expeditious review” and said she looked forward to learning the results of what she described as its investigation, according to the letter.

The State Department and Maloy were unable to provide a comment before publication.

“The time for justice is finally coming for Republika Srpska,” Radovan Kovačević, a delegate to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the DCNF in a statement responding to Maloy’s request.

Kovačević accused Schmidt of improperly changing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s criminal code before Dodik was prosecuted and ultimately removed from office. Schmidt enacted amendments to the criminal code in July 2023 that created an offense for failing to implement decisions of the High Representative, according to the Office of the High Representative (OHR).

The OHR decision stated that the amendments would take effect on an interim basis until Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Parliamentary Assembly adopted them “in due form,” according to the OHR.

Kovačević rejected the legal basis for the process and accused Schmidt and the CEC of “interference in the electoral and democratic process in Republika Srpska.”

When asked directly whether Washington should sanction the officials involved, Kovačević answered, “Yes, absolutely.”

“Christian Schmidt first and foremost, followed by members of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also the prosecutors and judges, and everyone else who participated in the shameful, undemocratic, unjust and unconstitutional criminal prosecution of the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik,” Kovačević told the DCNF.

Kovačević also called for decisions imposed by Schmidt to be withdrawn, arguing that doing so was necessary to restore the country’s constitutional order.

Schmidt announced in May that he would end his nearly five-year tenure as High Representative, describing the move as a personal decision and asking the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board to begin selecting a successor, according to the OHR. Schmidt’s resignation became effective July 1 when Louis Crishock took over as acting High Representative, according to the OHR.

The latest fight comes after years of confrontation between Dodik and Western governments over the political future of Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dodik called Bosnia and Herzegovina an “impossible state” and appealed directly to President Donald Trump to support an independent Republika Srpska during an exclusive May interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“We are the people who need our freedom and liberty,” Dodik told the DCNF through a translator. “And, we deserve our freedom and liberty.”

Dodik said Trump’s support for independence would amount to a “great, historical act” and make the president “one of the most prominent figures” in Serbian history.

The Trump administration stopped short of embracing Dodik’s independence push at the time.

“The United States supports the Dayton Peace Agreement and the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” a State Department spokesperson previously told the DCNF. “The United States continues to use its diplomatic tools to support BiH’s stability and oppose actions that undermine stability.”

The U.S. previously imposed sanctions on Dodik in 2017 and expanded sanctions against him in 2022, according to OFAC. The Trump administration removed Dodik and numerous other Republika Srpska-linked individuals and entities from the sanctions list in October 2025.

Kovačević praised the direction of U.S. policy under Trump and claimed the administration had helped push Schmidt from office.

“We believe that the administration of President Trump has already taken certain positive steps and has contributed significantly to and helped force Christian Schmidt to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Kovačević told the DCNF. “And what is equally important is this: Republika Srpska needs freedom.”