Two Congressional Republicans, Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Reprepentative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), have launched an investigation into Vice President Kamala Harris's national security adviser Philip Gordon over alleged ties to Iranian efforts to expand its influence in the US, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
In a letter sent to Vice President Harris on Wednesday, the two wrote that they were concerned by Gordon's "connections to Ms. Ariane Tabatabai, a senior Department of Defense official who was reportedly involved in an Iranian government operation to expand Tehran's soft power in the United States."
They noted that Gordon wrote op eds together with Tabatabai "blatantly promoting the Iranian regime's perspective and interests." He also wrote op eds together with former US envoy to Iran Robert Malley.
Cotton and Stefanik stated that their probe is meant to determine if Gordon's ties to Iran should disqualify him from having security clearance that would give him access to classified documents.
Tabatabai helped found the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), which was established as part of Iran's influence campaign in the US and worked to undermine resistance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“In a March 2020 piece, Mr. Gordon and Ms. Tabatabai claimed continued sanctions on Iran would create ‘catastrophe’ in the Middle East. In another, they wrote sanctions could lead to new Iranian efforts to ‘lash out with attacks on its neighbors, and on Americans and American interests in the Middle East,'” Cotton and Stefanik said. “Each prediction was as wrong, as it was biased in favor of Tehran. Mr. Gordon was also closely associated with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), another Iranian influence organization that allegedly collaborates with Tehran.”
"When you hired Mr. Gordon, were you aware of his connections with Ariane Tabatabai, the IEI, and the NIAC?" Cotton and Stefanik asked Harris. "Did Mr. Gordon undergo security screening and receive a security clearance when you hired him? Does he have an active security clearance?"
Stefanik told the New York Post, “Since last year, I have demanded accountability from the Department of Defense for allowing Iranian regime acolytes to infiltrate high-level government staff.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration policy of appeasing Iran and abandoning Israel will only worsen if Kamala Harris and her Iranian apologist staff are elevated. I am proud to join Senator Cotton to demand accountability," she added.
Robert Malley was placed on leave without pay last year after his security clearance was suspended amid an FBI investigation into his handling of classified material.
Malley played a significant role in the Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, from which then-President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
In May, Senator James Risch (R-Idaho), the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) accused Malley of storing classified documents on his private email account and cell phone, where the documents were accessed by a “hostile cyber actor."