WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Representatives Kevin Hern (R-OK-01), Chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), and Joe Wilson (R-SC-02), Chairman of the RSC National Security Task Force, yesterday sent a letter to President Joe Biden following publication of sensitive documents in the Iranian regime-controlled Tehran Times.
“It is shocking that the Tehran Times, a propaganda arm of Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime, somehow obtained sensitive internal State Department documents about the suspension of Special Envoy Rob Malley’s security clearance,” said Senator Hagerty. “The Biden Administration must explain how this happened, especially after recent news reports about how current Administration officials and those close to them were directly involved in the so-called ‘Iran Experts Initiative,’ an Iranian regime-run foreign influence network that operated in the United States and around the world.”
“If the published documents are authentic, this may indicate that Islamic Republic’s intelligence apparatus has been able somehow to obtain access to restricted U.S. State Department emails or government servers, which would constitute a significant security breach of U.S. government property by a foreign adversary. Alternatively, this could mean that U.S. government employees leaked restricted and sensitive government documents. According to the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual, such ‘sensitive but unclassified’ documents ‘require administrative control and protection from public or other unauthorized disclosure for public reasons,’” the members of Congress wrote.
“We are also dismayed that, despite repeated Congressional inquiries into the circumstances that led to the suspension of Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley’s security clearance, Members of Congress have obtained more information from the pages of the Tehran Times than from U.S. government briefings,” the members of Congress continued.
The members of Congress concluded by requesting answers from the White House to a series of questions on relationships between members of the Biden Administration and the Iranian terrorist regime, whether and how sensitive documents came to be in Iran’s possession, and what steps are being taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
A copy of the letter can be found here and below.
Dear President Biden,
On September 17, 2023, the Tehran Times, a regime-affiliated newspaper in Iran, published an audiotape of the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk in a private meeting discussing national security options towards Iran. A few weeks earlier, on August 27, the Tehran Times also published what it claimed were “sensitive but unclassified” U.S. government documents relating to the revocation of the security clearance of Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley, who is currently on leave. This was not the first time that the Tehran Times had published information regarding the suspension of Special Envoy Malley’s security clearance.
If the published documents are authentic, this may indicate that Islamic Republic’s intelligence apparatus has been able somehow to obtain access to restricted U.S. State Department emails or government servers, which would constitute a significant security breach of U.S. government property by a foreign adversary. Alternatively, this could mean that U.S. government employees leaked restricted and sensitive government documents. According to the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual, such “sensitive but unclassified” documents “require administrative control and protection from public or other unauthorized disclosure for public reasons.”
Either possibility is gravely concerning.
We are also dismayed that, despite repeated Congressional inquiries into the circumstances that led to the suspension of Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley’s security clearance, Members of Congress have obtained more information from the pages of the Tehran Times than from U.S. government briefings.
We therefore request your administration provide answers to the following questions, in either classified or unclassified form:
1) Can you please confirm whether the audiotape published on September 17th and the “sensitive but unclassified” documents published on August 27th by the Tehran Times are authentic?
2) If the audio and documents are authentic, please provide security assessment on how the Tehran Times obtained them.
3) Was Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley involved in the chain of custody
of the “sensitive but unclassified” U.S. government documents that were ultimately published by the Tehran Times?
4) Were any of the non-governmental persons referenced by the Tehran Times— including Trita Parsi, Ali Vaez, and Vali Nasr—involved in chain of custody of the U.S. documents that were ultimately published?
5) Please describe the steps your Administration is taking to prevent further leaks of information to the Iranian regime? Which elements of the U.S. government have you tasked with this responsibility?
Sincerely,
###