Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
An image is published showing Bill Clinton, former president of the United States of America (USA).
image was posted on Facebook on Wednesday (March 18), by a page called "Realiteti" and has the caption claiming that Clinton stated that "The Special Court must understand that the US and NATO did not support a criminal enterprise, but a liberation enterprise. We had the strongest intelligence in the world, we investigated Thaçi and he is completely clean. His conviction would be a huge blow to us."
This caption also claims that the former American president made this statement in the English-language media outlet "Washington Post".
What is the truth?
There is no credible source that confirms that Clinton has publicly stated what is alleged in this post.
This post has received over 1,200 likes, over 100 comments, and 140 shares as of the time of writing. Based on the content of the comments, it can be estimated that the audience is likely to perceive the claim as credible.
The page that published the post is not a credible source of information, but it has over 29 thousand followers (see here).
Some of the comments on the post:
Although the content lacks the date of the alleged statement, it claims that Clinton made the statement in the Washington Post.
Hibrid.info checked the website of this medium, but was unable to access the website archive (see here).
Because the alleged statement mentions Hashim Thaçi, the former president of Kosovo, Hibrid.info tried to access the alleged information indirectly, through the search engine “Google”, by typing the words “bill clinton hashim thaçi washington post”. However, the search results did not find any reliable information that would confirm the claim (see here).
The alleged statement was also directly researched through Google, using the words allegedly said by Clinton. Even from this search, no official information was found that proves that the former President of the United States has publicly stated something like this (see here).
Hashim Thaçi was the political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the Albanian guerrilla movement that fought to counter attacks by Serbian forces at the time (see here).
Although some Western governments had labeled the KLA a terrorist organization in 1997, Western perception of the group changed as Serbian and Yugoslav authorities took harsh measures in Kosovo in 1998-99.
Bill Clinton, who served as US president from 1993-2001, for two terms, was the person who authorized the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, which ended the attacks by Serbian forces on the Albanian population in Kosovo (see here).
However, in June 2020, Thaçi was indicted for war crimes by the Specialist Prosecutor's Office and the Specialist Chambers based in The Hague. His trial ended on 18 February 2026, and the final verdict is still awaited (see here).
Political officials from former President Clinton's administration who have publicly stated their views on the case against Thaçi include James Rubin, former US Assistant Secretary of State, and Christopher Hill, former US envoy to Kosovo, who were also witnesses invited by former President Thaçi's defense in this trial.
Based on this evidence, the claims in this post (about the criminality or otherwise of the KLA and the US verifications of Thaçi) were stated by Rubin and Hill in this process (see here).
But, in no case has Clinton been found to have stated anything like that.
Hibrid.info has also in the past handled content where it is similarly claimed that American officials have made statements about Thaçi's trial (see here and here).
Analyze:
An image of Bill Clinton has been published, accompanied by a caption claiming that he has declared that Hashim Thaçi is “completely clean” and that his conviction would be a “huge blow to the US.” The post also claims that this statement was made to The Washington Post.
After verifying the facts, Hibrid.info has found no evidence that Bill Clinton has made such a statement publicly. There is no publication of this nature in The Washington Post or any other credible media outlet.
Online searches and verification of reliable sources have not yielded any information confirming this claim.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.