The White House regularly hosted Ariane Tabatabai, a senior Pentagon official with close ties to Iran, even after it was revealed that she had been at the heart of an Iranian influence network, advocating for Tehran and its agendas.
Tabatabai is currently the chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, a position that grants her access to top secret information. In September 2023, a joint investigation by Semafor and Iran International named her as one of the main figures in a network of analysts and scholars tasked by Iran’s foreign ministry officials to echo and amplify Tehran’s talking points.
Now a Free Beacon report has revealed that Tabatabai had eight meetings at the White House in the months following that revelation.
The meetings, which occurred between Nov. 2023 and April 2024, have sparked further concerns about Tabatabai's access to classified information long after US lawmakers called for a suspension of her security clearance and an investigation into her role and her recruitment process.
“Almost one year after I demanded the Department of Defense open an investigation… we continue to find out concerning details regarding the access and influence Ms. Tabatabai has within the Biden-Harris administration," Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said, according to the Free Beacon. "Ms. Tabatabai’s concerning close ties to Kamala Harris’s national security adviser and their attempts to prop up the Iranian regime by brazenly publishing pro-Iran opinion pieces together is a matter that warrants our highest scrutiny.”
Harris’s national security adviser is Phil Gordon who has co-authored opinion pieces with Tabatabai against US sanctions on Iran.
Senior Republican lawmakers, including Senators Jim Risch (R-ID) and Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Representatives Michael McCaul (R-TX) have also raised concerns about what they see as Iran’s expanding influence operations in the US. In separate letters to Harris and secretary of state Antony Blinken, they have inquired about Gordon and his potential ties to Iran via such channels as Tabatabai.
Both Tabatabai and Gordon are closely associated with Robert Malley, the Biden administration’s former Iran envoy, whose security clearance was revoked in April 2023 and is under investigation for alleged sharing of classified documents.
In their letter to Blinken (August 1) Risch and McCaul expressed deep frustration with the State Department's lack of transparency regarding Malley's case. They said the department's lack of response was "deeply troubling" and threatened to "pursue compulsory processes to secure any documents, materials, and testimony".
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