US Republican lawmakers are calling on the State Department to investigate how the Tehran Times newspaper, close to Ali Khamenei's office, obtained a purported memo informing US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley that his security clearance was suspended.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mike McCaul said Monday in a statement that Foggy Bottom “needs to do a top-to-bottom security review because I am concerned they have a leak.”
McCaul also voiced concerns that the Tehran Times has again obtained information that has eluded lawmakers who have demanded to know more about an ongoing investigation into Malley, which involves questions about whether he should be allowed to handle classified information.
Last month, McCaul threatened to subpoena the State Department for details of the case.
“If this memo is authentic, it is extremely concerning, especially since this is not the first time the Iranian regime’s mouthpiece has appeared to have sensitive US government information recently while Congress is kept in the dark,” McCaul said.
The media outlet reported Sunday — based on what it claimed was an April 21 memo from a top State Department diplomatic security official to Malley — that Malley’s top secret clearance was suspended over “serious security concerns” related to his “personal conduct,” “handling of protected information” and “use of information technology.”
A person familiar with the investigation into Malley who has seen the original memo told POLITICO that the Tehran Times’ version appeared to match that original.
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration both for temporarily allowing Malley to continue to work in the department after his security clearance was suspended over the investigation and for keeping them in the dark about the probe for several weeks. The FBI is involved in the probe, according to a person familiar with the case.
“I have requested transparency from the State Department on the ongoing Robert Malley saga and will continue to demand answers,” McCaul said.
“Regarding this latest chapter, I am very concerned about how the regime got this potentially authentic document and what other sensitive or classified information they may have.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday called on the State Department Inspector General to probe how the Tehran Times obtained a memorandum that informed Malley of his security clearance.
“It is shocking and, to my knowledge, unprecedented that a propaganda arm of Iran’s terrorist regime got its hands on what appears to be a ‘Sensitive But Unclassified’ April 2023 memo related to the suspension of Special Envoy Rob Malley’s security clearance,” Hagerty said in a statement.
The inspector general’s office should probe “whether any State Department officials have violated any laws or regulations in what appears to be an unauthorized disclosure of this [sensitive] communication related to Malley and national security.”
Hagerty, who also shared his criticism on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, questioned whether the memo was genuine. He was reposting a message from a former State Department adviser on Iran during the Trump administration, Gabriel Noronha, who said it “looks authentic to me.”
