Robert Malley mystery deepens as Biden’s envoy to Iran remains sidelined

The Biden administration won’t tell lawmakers why Robert Malley, the State Department’s envoy to Iran, had his security clearance suspended earlier this year, congressional sources said, as the mystery deepens over whether the embattled diplomat may have disclosed sensitive information to foreign contacts.

The State Department gave the House Foreign Affairs Committee a classified briefing on Friday morning, weeks after the controversy erupted. Outrage had been growing over the administration’s handling of the incident and its potential implications for U.S. diplomacy and national security.

A Foreign Affairs Committee spokesperson told The Washington Times that the State Department provided no significant new information and would not explain why Mr. Malley’s security clearance was suspended. The spokesperson said administration officials cited the 1974 Privacy Act in refusing to provide more details.

A State Department spokesperson told The Times that the department does not comment on communications with Congress. The spokesperson confirmed that Mr. Malley is still on leave but offered no further information, citing “privacy considerations.”

The spokesperson said the State Department’s deputy special envoy for Iran, Abram Paley, is leading the administration’s day-to-day Iran policy.

House Republicans suspect that the circumstances leading to the suspension of Mr. Malley’s security clearance could be serious. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, Texas Republican, said earlier this month that leaking classified secrets to foreign adversaries would constitute a serious crime.

“I can’t tell you how important this is because if he somehow, you know — worst-case scenario — transferred intelligence and secrets to our foreign nation adversaries … that would be treason in my view,” Mr. McCaul told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on July 16.

Questions also have arisen about the timeline of events. Politico first reported in June that Mr. Malley was on leave. The envoy appears to have given public interviews about Iran as recently as late May.

A source familiar with the matter told The Times on Friday that his security clearance was suspended on April 22, suggesting that Mr. Malley may have continued work on Iran policy afterward.

The Times could not confirm that specific timetable.

Mr. Malley has said little about the ordeal but seems to deny any wrongdoing. He told Politico via text message on June 29 that he was told his security clearance was under review but he did not receive any further information.

“I expect the investigation to be resolved favorably and soon,” the envoy wrote at the time. “In the meantime, I am on leave.”

Even if it turns out to be temporary, Mr. Malley’s exit has thrust President Biden’s Iran policy into flux at a critical moment. With Mr. Malley and Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the helm, the president sought to resurrect the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief.

President Trump pulled the U.S. out of that deal in 2018.

Mr. Biden came to office three years later with a promise to revive the 2015 multinational accord. Yet despite strong urging from leading European allies, he has faced frustration and roadblocks at every turn. Meanwhile, Iran is ramping up nuclear programs that the deal put on hold.

Mr. Malley is considered one of the architects of the 2015 deal, and Mr. Biden tapped him to lead the effort to revive it. After nearly two years of diplomacy, negotiations broke down last year during Iran’s brutal crackdown on domestic protesters, its military backing of Russia in its war with Ukraine, and continued assaults on U.S. troops in the Middle East by militias with direct links to Tehran.

Mr. Malley has reportedly sought to revive the effort by meeting multiple times in recent months with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. That behind-the-scenes work seems to be at issue, with questions about any sensitive information he may have revealed during private conversations.

While a favorite of some in the U.S. foreign policy establishment, Mr. Malley has long been scrutinized by Republicans.

The Washington Times reported in 2021 that Mr. Malley and former Secretary of State John Kerry continued to meet with Iranian officials after President Obama left office. Some of the meetings were with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister at the time, in an apparent bid to undermine the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran.

Despite its outreach to Iran, the Biden administration has upheld the State Department’s long-standing designation of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and maintained a Trump-era designation of the Iranian military’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Officials have also said Mr. Biden would use force, if necessary, to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Robert Malley in the headline.