Ex-Iran envoy Rob Malley ‘compromised classified information,’ Rep. Michael McCaul says
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul believes the Biden administration’s suspended special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, “compromised classified information” related to the US adversary.
Malley was placed on unpaid leave by the State Department in June and had his security clearance suspended amid a probe into the possibility that he mishandled classified material. The FBI is also conducting an “ongoing” investigation into the matter, according to the State Department.
“It’s very concerning,” McCaul (R-Texas) said of the allegations against Malley during an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Thursday. “He’s a special envoy for Iran. He is the principal architect, the negotiator on the Iran deal – to resurrect the Iran deal.”
McCaul explained that congressional lawmakers only found out about Malley’s suspension after he went “basically AWOL” when asked to brief Congress on Iran.
“We found out that he was suspended without pay because he had problems with his security clearance. He compromised classified information, we think with Iran, and now there’s a wider investigation into this,” McCaul said.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” the Texas Republican added.
McCaul’s concerns have been echoed by other lawmakers, including Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who told The Post Wednesday that Malley “deserves extensive scrutiny” in light of a Wall Street Journal report that officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps planned and signed off on this weekend’s Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,000 people in the Jewish state.
“These reports could not be more concerning, and they hint at what could be the worst State Department scandal since Alger Hiss,” Issa said.
Malley, a controversial figure in the Biden administration over his willingness to engage with loathsome Middle Eastern figures, including members of Hamas, was appointed by President Biden to the position of special envoy for Iran on Jan. 28, 2021.
He was previously president and CEO of the International Crisis Group and worked in several capacities at the White House under former President Barack Obama, where he was deeply involved in the Obama administration’s construction of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Omri Ceren, a national security adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), noted Sunday that “Malley was so entangled with Hamas that Obama had to drop him as an advisor [sic] during the 2008 campaign — before later bringing him back to do Mideast policy.”
Malley also served on the National Security Council and was a special assistant to former President Bill Clinton.
Last month, a trove of leaked files revealed that three top aides to Malley were tied to a secretive influence operation by Tehran’s Foreign Ministry, according to internal Iranian government correspondence and emails reviewed by Semafor.
