House Republicans are preparing to subpoena the State Department for documents related to Robert Malley’s suspension — and compel testimony from the former special envoy for Iran after his security clearance was quietly revoked earlier this year.
The House Oversight Committee requested information and a personal interview with Malley to determine the circumstances under which he was placed on unpaid leave, a panel spokeswoman confirmed to The Post.
The Oversight Committee also requested information about security clearances given to one of Malley’s advisers, Ariane Tabatabai, who participated in a program with Tehran’s Foreign Ministry to influence nuclear negotiations with the US, according to leaked documents.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) could also subpoena Tabatabai as part of the committee’s investigation.
House Republicans are preparing to subpoena the State Department for documents related to Robert Malley’s suspension.AFP via Getty Images Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) may also subpoena Tabatabai as part of the committee’s investigation.Getty Images
A senior aide to the GOP-led committee told Semafor, which first reported the expected subpoena, that lawmakers could not learn much about Malley’s removal, even after the FBI opened an investigation into the envoy’s conduct.
A State Department spokeswoman told The Post that the agency does not comment on congressional correspondence as a general matter and declined to share further details “due to privacy considerations,” confirming only that Malley “remains on leave.”
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the department, told reporters in response to questions during his Sept. 26 briefing that lawmakers had been “adequately briefed” on the matter.
Malley also served as a Middle East foreign policy adviser under former President Barack Obama — but was briefly dropped from the latter’s 2008 campaign for talks with Hamas. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“Do we really have to go to this level? Can’t they say this isn’t true?” a senior Republican aide told The Post Monday. “I find that this administration is very quick to deny accusations that they consider absurd. I don’t think this one is so silly.”
The request for documents follows a Wall Street Journal report that Iran helped Hamas plan its October 7 terror attack that killed more than 1,300 people in southern Israel, including women and children and at least 29 Americans.
In the biggest attack on the Jewish state since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Hamas terrorists launched thousands of rockets and a multi-front invasion from the Gaza Strip.
In the biggest attack on Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Hamas terrorists launched thousands of rockets and a multi-pronged incursion from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7.AP
Jihadists brought 199 hostages back to Hamas-controlled territory after paragliding into an Israeli music festival to persecute civilians and carry out a campaign of genocide against families in kibbutzim near the Gaza border.
President Biden spoke on Friday with the families of at least 14 Americans who are still missing, some of whom have been confirmed hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas following the attack, launching airstrikes ahead of an expected ground invasion while the jihadists prevented civilians from fleeing the region.
Israel has also ordered all civilians to evacuate northern Gaza and head south.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian met with Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, on October 14. Iranian Foreign Ministry/AFP via Getty Images
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a member of the House panel, told The Post last week that Malley deserves “thorough scrutiny” for any policy decisions he makes that might allow bloodshed.
“Rob Malley deserves a thorough investigation — yesterday, today and tomorrow,” Issa said of reports that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps coordinated and signed off on the atrocity.
“This report could not be more alarming, and it foreshadows what could be the worst State Department scandal since Alger Hiss,” he added, referring to the US government official accused of spying for the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
Malley also served as a Middle East foreign policy adviser under former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — but was briefly dropped from the latter’s 2008 campaign for talks with Hamas, the New York Times reported.
He was also the architect of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which briefly lifted some sanctions on Iran but was abandoned three years later by President Donald Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas following the attack, killing at least 1,500 Hamas terrorists. AFP via Getty Images
Tabatabai, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the daughter of an Iranian academic, was one of three advisers who sought advice from the Iran Expert Initiative, an influence project initiated under then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Semafor previously reported.
Along with two other academics, Mostafa Zahrani and Dina Esfandiary, Tabatabai wrote an op-ed advocating that the US sign a nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which reduces Tehran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.
The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, France, Russia, the UK and the US, as well as Germany — all signed the deal before the Trump administration pulled out in May 2018.
Tabatabai currently serves at the Pentagon as chief of staff to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Christopher Maier, for whom he has a security clearance.
Esfandiary served as a senior adviser on the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, a think tank run by Malley from 2018 to 2021. Zahrani worked at the Tehran-based think tank Institute for Political and International Studies.
The Israel Defense Forces have also launched airstrikes that have killed at least 2,750 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, as jihadists have prevented people from fleeing the territory. AFP via Getty Images
Congressional Republicans and foreign policy peddlers have criticized the Biden administration for taking a “permissive” stance on Iran that has allowed tens of billions of dollars to flow to Tehran-allied terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
They have taken particular issue with the recent unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian assets as part of a prisoner swap made last month.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to confirm Tehran’s involvement in the bloodshed during a briefing last week but said Iran was “complicit” given its “huge funding for the military wing of Hamas.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has also said that $6 billion earmarked for Iran has yet to be accessed.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian met Saturday with Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, where the terrorist group’s leadership has been hiding for more than a decade.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
