Congressional Republicans are probing the situation involving the Biden administration’s top envoy on Iran, Rob Malley, following reports yesterday that the State Department placed him on extended leave amid an investigation into his security clearance.
The department told reporters yesterday that Malley is on leave and that his deputy has stepped in as deputy envoy. But reports indicate that Malley has been absent from his duties for several weeks.
Lawmakers are homing in on the State Department’s repeated claims over that period that Malley had been on leave for personal and medical reasons. In comments to National Review yesterday, a senior congressional foreign-policy aide accused the Biden administration of lying to lawmakers for months about Malley’s situation.
Earlier this afternoon, Representative Michael McCaul, one of the most powerful lawmakers in the House of Representatives, announced that he is opening an investigation into the matter. As chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Texas Republican has the power to subpoena the State Department.
He revealed that senior State Department officials, responding to his requests for Malley to brief the committee earlier this year, had claimed that the envoy was “unable to testify or brief because he was on personal leave due to the illness of a close family member, for which my staff expressed sympathy,” in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. McCaul went on to write: “At no point did the Department indicate that Special Envoy Malley’s security clearance was suspended or under review, or that he was being investigated for potential misconduct.”
“The Department’s failure to inform Congress of this matter demonstrates at best a lack of candor, and at worst represents deliberate and potentially unlawful misinformation,” McCaul wrote.
He also requested documents and information about the circumstances behind Malley’s absence from his work at the State Department and the investigation into Malley’s security clearance.
Several Senate Republicans, including Bill Hagerty, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz have expressed support for investigating the State Department’s handling of the matter since yesterday’s revelations. “Malley’s contacts with Hamas & other extremist groups raised concerns in the past,” wrote Hagerty on Twitter today, questioning why President Biden and Blinken selected him in the first place.