Pop quiz: The case of Robert Malley is one of
A) Egregiously irresponsible handling of sensitive government information and hypocrisy about the implications;
B) Dangerously inept foreign policy in which the Biden administration put the U.S. and our allies at risk;
C) Corruption and cover-ups of national-security scandals;
D) Somehow yet another indictment of American elite higher education;
E) All of the above.
I suppose it was obvious where I was going with this. It’s all of the above.
Malley was the Biden administration’s (and, before that, Obama’s) Iran whisperer who may have done too much whispering. He is on leave from government work because he is under FBI investigation for allegedly mishandling classified information in his dealings with his Iranian interlocutors. A first-class appeaser, Malley seems to have lost his sense of boundaries in his eagerness to gift Iran a new nuclear-legitimization deal and gobs of Western cash.
But Malley’s alleged indiscretion is only part of the story. What he did as part of his official duties is a scandal in itself.
Malley was part of the Obama administration’s negotiating team that fooled itself into the lopsided Iran nuclear deal, which President Trump then pulled the U.S. out of. In 2021, Malley was invited back by the Biden administration to try to get a new deal. He showed up so ready to give away the store that he embarrassed other U.S. negotiators and the Europeans.
“Malley proposed removing the portion of the U.S. sanctions that related to Iran’s nuclear program, attempting to mirror the conditions of the original nuclear agreement,” reports the Wall Street Journal in an overview of Malley’s failures. “Malley’s direct approach worried some members of his 10-person negotiating team, who believed he was showing his hand too soon.”
A member of Spain’s negotiating team was surprised by how much Malley “unveiled” immediately. Others thought it was clear that Iran was merely playing for time and using Malley as a dupe. That soon proved to be the case. “Iran pocketed U.S. proposals and demanded more deal points, including the removal of Iran’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, from the U.S. foreign terrorist organization list,” the Journal notes.
Eventually, Malley’s desperation caused others on the U.S. team to throw up their hands in frustration: “Malley’s deputy, Richard Nephew, resigned, citing on X ‘a sincere difference of opinion concerning policy.’ Another member of the group, Ariane Tabatabai, an Iranian-American State Department employee, also left.”
A brief word on Tabatabai is necessary to understand just how badly Malley had bungled the talks. Last year, Semafor began reporting on an Iranian government influence operation known as the Iran Experts Initiative. The Iranian Foreign Ministry recruited and oversaw a group of influential professionals who often coordinated with Tehran about writing op-eds and even just getting advice about navigating the issue in the halls of power. Tabatabai was one of the IEI figures. She was, according to one email from an Iranian diplomatic figure, a member of “the core group of the IEI.”
And yet, Malley’s graceless thirst to appease Iran might have been too much for Tabatabai.
The Journal reports that an investigation that began in 2023 after Malley clicked on a phishing link turned up more than expected—that Malley may have moved classified material to private accounts. Last April, his clearance was suspended. When Congress inquired about his absence, the State Department came up with a cover story about Malley taking personal time.
The State Department also tried to brush off the FBI. An inspector general’s report last week revealed that the administration didn’t follow normal protocol in the way it informed Malley that his clearance was suspended because they wanted to save him the embarrassment—though surely they were more interested in saving the State Department itself from embarrassment. As a result, “Diplomatic Security officials notified Malley of his clearance suspension one day later than originally intended. That meant Malley may have been able to participate in a classified conference call with White House officials — after the suspension was approved but before he was told about it.”
Malley’s job performance may have put U.S. national interests at risk, but he was hired with eyes wide open. Before joining the Obama administration, Malley worked for the International Crisis Group where he ingratiated himself with figures inside Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are designated terrorist entities with much American blood on their hands. The Obama administration considered those contacts a plus, since both groups are proxies for the Iranian government, but it’s clear that Malley picked up a particularly skewed understanding of the region from rogue state proxies, leading to America’s very public diplomatic humiliation.
Oh, and the higher education angle to all this, by the way? While on leave for allegedly mishandling classified information in his role as envoy to the Iranians, Malley has been given a soft landing with plum teaching posts at Princeton and Yale. His main subject, in the words of the Journal: “U.S. foreign policy and human rights.”
