Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees are demanding answers from the Biden State Department regarding evidence that Robert Malley, the agency’s special envoy to Iran, stored classified documents on a personal email account and phone. Even more troubling, the Republican lawmakers say it appears a hostile foreign actor accessed the classified information.
In a letter to the State Department, the House and Senate lawmakers asked the Biden government to confirm their findings and hand over any evidence they’ve uncovered to Congressional investigators. “We remain deeply frustrated by the Department’s lack of responsiveness to our requests for information needed to conduct appropriate oversight,” the Republican lawmakers wrote in the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They continued: “Due to the Department’s evasiveness and lack of transparency, we have worked to glean information from other sources. Our own investigations have uncovered the following information and troubling allegations.”
“We ask that you confirm the information we have learned,” they added.
The letter appears to confirm that the State Department suspended Malley’s security clearance as a direct result of his mishandling of classified materials.
“Specifically, we understand that Mr. Malley’s security clearance was suspended because he allegedly transferred classified documents to his personal email account and downloaded these documents to his personal cell phone,” the lawmakers wrote. The letter concludes: “It is unclear to whom he intended to provide these documents, but it is believed that a hostile cyber actor was able to gain access to his email and/or phone and obtain the downloaded information.”
