The FBI is reportedly investigating President Joe Biden‘s special envoy for Iran over allegations that he mishandled classified information, according to a report from Semafor on Friday evening.
Rob Malley, a long-standing Middle East diplomat and analyst, was placed on unpaid leave with a suspension of his security clearance pending an evaluation at the end of June, with State Department diplomatic security officials leading the probe into Malley’s handling of classified documents.
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“Rob Malley is on leave and Abram Paley is serving as acting Special Envoy for Iran and leading the Department’s work in this area,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement to reporters on June 29.
While further details of Malley’s suspension remain unclear, a top U.S. official, without having direct knowledge of the matter, told Semafor that a representative who holds a status like Malley would not have their security clearance suspended by a government agency unless a law enforcement agency is conducting an open investigation.
Malley was a senior official in the Obama administration, playing a key role in negotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which limited Iran’s nuclear powers in exchange for sanctions relief.
Former President Donald Trump terminated the United States’s participation in the Iran deal in 2018, calling it a “horrible, one-sided deal.”
Biden sought to revive the 2015 agreement, campaigning on the pledge during his bid for office in 2020, but the U.S. has yet to reenter. Recently, a group of senators wrote to Biden, urging him to “take meaningful steps to curb Iran’s destabilizing activities.”
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“Congress stands united behind the long held bipartisan position that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon,” the letter reads.
U.S. and Iranian officials reportedly had indirect talks in Oman in May, according to Axios, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani confirming the talks and a source saying a chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, was involved.
