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Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, and House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Michael McCaul did not provide any source for the
allegations in a May 6 letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken. The letter was first reported by the Washington Post
and reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.
"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," said the letter, which gave the most
detailed potential public explanation to date for the suspension
of Malley's security clearance.
"It is believed that a hostile cyber actor was able to gain
access to his email and/or phone and obtain the downloaded
information," they added, criticizing the Department for not
providing more information about Malley's case and posing 19
questions about it to Blinken.
A State Department spokesperson said Malley remains on leave,
adding that "under longstanding policy going back for decades,
the Department does not comment on individual security
clearances."
Malley declined to comment on the letter in an emailed response
to Reuters.
Appointed soon after U.S. President Joe Biden took office in
2021, Malley had the task of trying to revive the 2015 Iran
nuclear deal after then-President Donald Trump's 2018 decision
to abandon the pact and reimpose U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
That effort has failed, and the United States and Iran are
increasingly at odds on issues from Iran's nuclear program to
its support for proxy forces across the Middle East and its
first direct attack on Israeli territory on April 13.
(Reporting By Patricia Zengerle and Arshad Mohammed; Writing by
Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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