US Lawmaker Introduces Legislation to Probe Former Iran Envoy’s Suspension

On Sat­ur­day 09 Decem­ber 2023, Iran Inter­na­tion­al report­ed that Repub­li­can Con­gress­woman Clau­dia Ten­ney intro­duced the Robert Mal­ley Act, requir­ing exec­u­tive agen­cies to dis­close infor­ma­tion to Con­gress about the sus­pen­sion of employ­ees like for­mer Iran envoy Robert Mal­ley. Mal­ley was qui­et­ly removed from his duties in April 2023 for alleged­ly mis­han­dling restrict­ed infor­ma­tion, a move that the Biden admin­is­tra­tion has not detailed. Iran Inter­na­tion­al first report­ed Mal­ley’s extend­ed absence in June 2023, and in Sep­tem­ber, along with Semafor, uncov­ered a sig­nif­i­cant Iran­ian influ­ence oper­a­tion in Wash­ing­ton. This oper­a­tion involved Mal­ley’s asso­ciates, who pro­mot­ed Iran’s nuclear pro­gram through media appear­ances and pub­li­ca­tions. In Octo­ber, the US House Over­sight Com­mit­tee announced plans to sub­poe­na Mal­ley as part of an inves­ti­ga­tion into US poli­cies towards Iran. The com­mit­tee aims to uncov­er the rea­sons behind the revo­ca­tion of Mal­ley’s secu­ri­ty clear­ance by US Diplo­mat­ic Secu­ri­ty and seeks records relat­ed to Mal­ley’s aide, Ari­ane Tabatabai, and her role in the Iran Experts Ini­tia­tive, designed to advance Iran’s views on nuclear nego­ti­a­tions. In March 2021. the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed on Mal­ley’s con­tro­ver­sial appoint­ment as the Biden Admin­is­tra­tion envoy to Iran. As we not­ed in that report, Mal­ley had been an infor­mal advis­er to Obama’s 2008 cam­paign but resigned after it emerged he had met with Hamas rep­re­sen­ta­tives while work­ing for the Inter­na­tion­al Cri­sis Group (ICG). To accept his cur­rent appoint­ment, Mal­ley stood down his role as ICG Pres­i­dent & Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer after hold­ing var­i­ous posts at ICG for near­ly two decades. Dur­ing Malley’s tenure, the ICG was notably sup­port­ive of the Glob­al Mus­lim Brotherhood.