WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State Department Management, today issued a statement after the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its report on the Department’s handling of the suspension of U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley’s security clearance. The Inspector General’s report responds to a July 13, 2023, letter led by Senator Hagerty and signed by 17 other senators that requested the OIG to investigate whether State Department officials had complied with all appropriate laws and regulations when they suspended Malley’s access to classified information. News reports revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating Malley for mishandling classified information, including moving “classified information onto his personal email, where it may have fallen into the hands of a foreign actor.”
“We see growing evidence of Iran collusion by members of the Biden-Harris Administration amid the FBI’s reported ongoing investigation into Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley’s mishandling of classified information and news reports that Malley and other Biden-Harris Administration officials were part of the Iranian regime’s malign influence network known as the ‘Iran Experts Initiative’,” said Senator Hagerty. “The Inspector General’s report today includes new damning revelations about the cover-up, politicization, and systemic lack of accountability in the Biden-Harris Administration’s State Department amid the Malley scandal. If the Trump Administration had done anything like this, this story would be leading the news on a daily basis.”
The State Department’s Inspector General report reveals:
- The Biden-Harris Administration’s State Department violated the law: “the Department violated the Department of State Authorities Act in not reporting the allegations against Mr. Malley to OIG” (p. 18).
- Malley participated in a classified call even after the Department had technically suspended his clearance: “The [State Department leadership’s] notification delay allowed Special Envoy Malley the opportunity to participate in a secure telephone call with White House officials on Friday, April 21, which occurred after his clearance was suspended but before he was notified” (p. 12).
- The Department restored Malley’s access to ‘sensitive but unclassified’ information systems because leadership rationalized that ‘he might turn to personal email if his Department email access was not restored’: the Inspector General called this rationale “a questionable justification” because “Department policy prohibits using personal email as the primary means of conducting government business” (p. 18).
The State Department’s OIG report, Special Review of the Department of State’s Handling of the Security Clearance Suspension of the Special Envoy for Iran, is available here.
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