House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) reiterated his request that the State Department provide information regarding the investigation into Iran envoy Robert Malley.
There are still a number of unknowns regarding Malley’s absence, which prompted McCaul’s letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week. He’s been on leave since at least June, and the FBI is investigating the allegations he mishandled classified documents, according to CBS News.
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The State Department acknowledged that Malley is on leave but has declined to answer most other questions surrounding the situation, while John Bass, undersecretary of state for management, and Gentry Smith, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, briefed McCaul and ranking committee member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) late last month.
“Though we appreciated the briefers’ time, we are concerned that some officials at the Department, including yourself, knew about Mr. Malley’s situation for months but did not communicate to Congress about it, even as the Committee expressed bipartisan interest in receiving testimony or a briefing from Mr. Malley on Iran policy,” McCaul and Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL) wrote.
The briefing did not include the whole foreign affairs committee, just the chairman and ranking member, while a committee spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner that the department “refused” to share any “significant new information, including the reason his security clearance was revoked.”
A State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner, “The Department does not comment on individual security clearances. Rob Malley remains on leave. We have nothing further to share due to privacy considerations. We take Congress’ oversight role very seriously. We have been in touch with Congress on this issue in the context of the work of the Committee, but as a general matter, we do not comment on Congressional correspondence.”
While Malley remains on leave, he has accepted positions at Yale’s Jackson School and Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.
“While I am on leave from the State Department, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with the next generation of public servants at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University,” Malley said in a Princeton press release announcing Malley’s appointment as a John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor and Visiting Lecturer.
It’s unclear if Malley’s new roles at Princeton and Yale are indications that the investigation could go on for some time.
“We are writing to directly reiterate our request that the Department notify and brief the Committee upon any relevant developments regarding the status of Mr. Malley’s employment and his ability to access classified information at the Department,” McCaul and Mast wrote. “This request is even more important with the recent news that Mr. Malley will be joining both Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs as a visiting professor and guest lecturer, and Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs as a senior fellow. Both developments would suggest a change to his employment status and that he will be leaving the State Department.”
Last month, McCaul questioned whether Malley may have “transferred intelligence and secrets to our foreign nation adversary,” which he said “would be treason in my view.”
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Malley has spearheaded President Joe Biden’s U.S. efforts to restart the 2015 Iran nuclear deal since 2021, but the negotiators have not reached a breakthrough, and the State Department has said it’s not on the agenda. He was one of the architects of the original deal under the Obama administration.
Earlier this month, the U.S. and Iran agreed to a separate deal that included the release of five imprisoned Americans in exchange for the release of several jailed Iranians and Tehran gaining access to $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue. The proposal has received some criticism due to concerns that such a deal could incentivize bad actors to take Americans to negotiate with the United States.
