Last year, the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Biden’s Justice Department bypassed normal protocol for the raid, sidelined the FBI’s Miami Field Office, refused to assign a U.S. Attorney’s Office and pressured the FBI to go forward.
Next year, the Biden administration encountered an internal case of one of its top officials mishandling classified information. The mishandling of classified information on Iran, the linchpin of the Trump indictment, didn’t just hit any Biden official, but its special envoy for Iran.
Even as the Justice Department moved full speed ahead with targeting Trump, the State Department was aware that Rob Malley, Biden’s special envoy for Iran, was being investigated for mishandling classified information. Despite that, Malley remained on the job and apparently retained his access to classified information until his security clearance was pulled this spring.
Under investigation and with his security clearance suspended, Malley still officially remained the special envoy for Iran even though secretly he was no longer able to fulfill some of his duties. Only at the end of June when the story broke did the State Department switch from calling Malley the envoy to Iran to finally stating that “Rob Malley is on leave.”
Within six months, the FBI had gone from a criminal investigation of Trump to a raid. It seems to have taken nearly that long for Malley just to be put on leave, and it appears as though he would still be named as the special envoy for Iran if the story of the investigation had not come out.
In one of the most awkward moments in an administration whose press conferences are full of them, State Department spokesman Matt Miller blurted out that he had “no comment” on Rob Malley’s status before assuring reporters that he was still the special envoy. And then Miller had to announce that Malley was on leave and his second in command was carrying on.
Prior to that, the State Department had offered misleading answers such as, “the Department of State, the Special Envoy for Iran and his team remain deeply engaged on the formulation and implementation of U.S. Iran Policy” while refusing to name who the actual envoy was.
The State Department had gone to great lengths to cover up the fact that one of its top figures, involved in a major national security issue, was being investigated by the FBI. Not only did it not disclose that Malley no longer had access to classified information and had been forced to step away from some duties, but actively obstructed reporters from learning about it.
The State Department’s official site, as of this writing, still names Malley as the special envoy. The Twitter account and other official State Department messaging accounts still carry Malley’s name. Had the story not come out from Iran dissident sources, we still would not know about it.
The surprise is not that Malley’s security clearance was suspended, it’s that he ever had it in the first place.
Robert Malley is the son of Simon Malley: a key figure in the Egyptian Communist Party and an adviser to terrorist leader Yasser Arafat. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama was forced to boot Robert Malley over his meetings with Hamas on behalf of George Soros’s International Crisis Group. Once in office, Obama brought Malley back and named him to a succession of top positions even though Iranian opposition groups and pro-Israel activists warned that Malley was sympathetic to Iran’s terror regime and working against America.
Malley helped negotiate the deal that allowed Iran to continue developing its nuclear program while having sanctions lifted. After Trump won, Malley rejoined the Soros ICG and was accused of conducting backchannel talks with Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to undermine the Trump administration in violation of the Logan Act.
While Gen. Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, was investigated for violations of the Logan Act for lobbying foreign officials in support of a resolution on Israel at the United Nations, Obama officials like Kerry and Malley never faced an investigation over alleged Logan Act violations aimed against America and Israel.
Biden brought in Malley as the special envoy for Iran despite not only all of this history, but also the fact that his son, Blaise Malley, was working for the Quincy Institute, run and funded by key figures in the pro-Iran movement, as well as George Soros.
Trita Parsi, Quincy’s executive VP, a dual Iranian-Swedish national, founded the National Iranian American Council, described by Iranian dissidents as the “Iran Lobby” and which has been accused of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Malley has spent his time as special envoy for Iran offering to give the Islamic terror regime anything it wants. America was “prepared to get back into the deal as soon as possible—as soon as Iran is,” he had pleaded. Iranian dissidents have held protests calling for Malley to be fired, condemned him and warned that he is working for Iran, not America.
The Biden administration was well aware that Malley was not just another official. He was a political extremist who had been accused of inappropriate ties to enemy nations and terror groups for decades, whose father had been expelled from France, whose son was working for an outpost of the Iran Lobby, and yet an investigation into mishandling classified information was not only slow-walked, but covered up to an almost criminal degree.
The State Department misled Americans and reporters about the status of its special envoy for Iran. And in the process it also effectively misled much of the world, which has been monitoring the failed attempt by the Biden administration to restart the Iran Deal. Including potentially Israel.
After a week in which the Biden administration had accused Israel of “leaking” information about its plans to implement a non-binding “temporary” deal with Iran, which was actually being leaked by Iranian sources, it has been caught covering up the misconduct of its Iran envoy.
The Biden administration’s coverup of its Iran envoy mishandling classified information is in sharp contrast to its purported concern over Trump’s handling of classified information on Iran.
An administration genuinely concerned with national security, especially when it comes to Iran, would never have appointed Malley as an envoy. Appointing someone with his history and connections to any national security position showed a total disregard for national security. Covering up for him reveals the scope of the State Department’s complicity in Malley’s actions.
As a New York Times story notes, “Mr. Malley is a boyhood friend of Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken; the two attended the same high school in Paris when their families were living in France.” Beyond Blinken, Malley was embedded in the system by the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations. He is part of a larger network of pro-Iran and anti-American officials within the State Department and the larger “blob” of think tanks, activists, lobbyists, reporters and foreign agents that calls the shots on foreign policy. Malley’s alleged sin is theirs.
The treatment of Trump does not reflect a concern for the sanctity of classified information, but is motivated solely by targeting the political opposition.
When you have the wrong political views, the FBI will knock on your door even if you’re the former president of the United States. And if you have the right political views, even if you’ve been a walking security risk for two decades, the State Department will cover for you and you’ll be able to keep your title even while being investigated for mishandling classified information.