Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Member of Iranian Influence Network Visited Biden White House Five Times
Meetings indicate alleged members of Iranian gov’t group including former Malley colleague Ali Vaez had access to top Biden officials
An alleged member of a secret Iranian government influence network visited the Biden White House at least five times for high-level meetings with senior U.S. officials, according to visitor logs.
Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst with the International Crisis Group, was outed last week as an alleged member of a vast Iranian-government-controlled propaganda network that helped push Tehran’s talking points in Washington, D.C., and influence policy, according to Semafor. Vaez reportedly communicated with senior Iranian government associates as part of the Iran Experts Initiative, an influence operation run by Iran’s foreign ministry.
The meetings are raising questions about whether the Biden administration was aware of Vaez’s alleged participation in the Iranian influence operation and may have given him insider information about the administration’s diplomacy with Tehran. Another alleged member of the Iran Experts Initiative, Ariane Tabatabai, serves as a senior Pentagon official and holds a security clearance, prompting Republican lawmakers to demand her top secret access be revoked.
Vaez is a close associate of U.S. Iran envoy Robert Malley, who was removed from his post earlier this year and stripped of his security clearance amid an investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified information.
Vaez took at least five meetings at the White House between 2022 and 2023, as the Biden administration was engaged in diplomacy with Iran that resulted in a hostage deal last month that freed up some $6 billion in revenue for the hardline regime.
Vaez’s meetings appear to have been with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Brett McGurk, the administration’s coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. Both Sullivan and McGurk played critical roles in reopening diplomacy with Iran and engaging in talks that led to the $6 billion ransom payment and release of five wrongfully imprisoned Americans.
"The Biden administration must be honest with the American public regarding its relationship with the Iran Experts Initiative," said Alireza Nader, a veteran Iran analyst based in Washington, D.C. "Did Sullivan and McGurk know that Ali Vaez was actively advocating for the Islamic Republic’s interests in Washington, D.C.? If they did know, why did they allow the regime’s influence or lobby network to have such immense influence in U.S. foreign policy?"
On April 13, 2022, Vaez is listed in White House visitor logs as being escorted by Sullivan’s personal assistant, Hazel Castillo. Two months later, Vaez is listed as visiting the West Wing and being escorted by Kimberly Lang, another assistant to Sullivan.
Vaez then visited the White House on Feb. 3 and 8, meeting both times with McGurk.
In March, Vaez made another trip to the White House when he attended a Nowruz holiday event, which celebrates the Persian New Year.
The White House did not respond to a Washington Free Beacon request for further information about these meetings, or if they are being reviewed in light of Vaez’s alleged participation in the Iranian-government propaganda network. Vaez also did not respond to a request for comment about the substance of his sit-downs with Sullivan and McGurk.
A spokesman for the International Crisis Group, where Vaez serves as the director of its Iran Project, said Vaez often meets with government officials in his role as an analyst.
"Over the past decade, Ali Vaez has met with officials from three successive U.S. administrations to discuss Iran policy, just as he's engaged with European diplomats and officials from across the Middle East," the spokesman said. "The topics have often included the threat of an unrestricted Iranian nuclear program and ways to address the regime's regional policy, which poses a key threat to...
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Kevin McCarthy Loses Speakership Amid Gaetz-Led Charge
WASHINGTON— Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) successfully ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy by a razor-thin margin on Tuesday afternoon. Gaetz rallied eight dissatisfied House conservatives to vote with Democrats, ending McCarthy’s speakership by a margin of 216-210 votes. Never in the history of the United States has the Speaker of the House lost his post in a motion to vacate.
As Republicans prepared to take back the House last fall, McCarthy addressed questions about whether he could win the speakership in an interview with The Federalist. “I’ve had people push and do different things,” he said. “But if you’re able to be running for speaker, that means all you’ve ever done is win. And I don’t think you change the coach then.”
After McCarthy’s 269 days atop the conference, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) now serves as interim speaker. McCarthy could win a vote to reassume the chair, but Republicans are looking at other members, from Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) to Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Speaking on background after the vote, one Republican lobbyist said Jordan “feels like the guy to me” but cautioned that it would become clearer after the GOP conference met later on Tuesday evening. Gaetz floated Emmer as an option. A senior GOP aide told The Federalist on Tuesday that Emmer, an establishment stalwart, is seen as playing a crucial negotiator role in HFC wins this year.
House Republicans are thrust suddenly back to the chaos of early January, flailing to cobble enough votes together to elect a Republican speaker with the party’s narrow nine-member majority. McCarthy, who yielded to Paul Ryan when John Boehner stepped down in 2015 and assumed the minority leadership position in 2019, proved to be the only person capable of bringing together enough centrists and conservatives — and even then, it took him 15 ballots and a host of concessions to get the gavel.
Indeed, it was one of those very concessions that enabled Gaetz to yank the gavel from his hands on the heels of McCarthy’s weekend deal to avert a government shutdown. Before Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made a change in 2019 — having watched former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) challenge Boehner’s reign — the “motion to vacate” the speakership could always be filed by one member. As CBS News reported in January, “Under Pelosi, a motion to vacate could be offered on the House floor only if a majority of either party agreed to it.”
In order to become Speaker, McCarthy conceded to members of the Freedom Caucus that he would undo Pelosi’s change. Citizens for Renewing America President Russ Vought, an ally of the Freedom Caucus who served as Donald Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, released a statement on the heels of Tuesday’s vote, calling the motion “the most critical” of the concessions made in January.
“If Kevin McCarthy were to violate the power sharing agreement, the motion to vacate would be available to topple the coalition government in exchange for a new one,” said Vought. “He did that–twice–on the most vital leverage points that provided opportunities to check the Biden Administration. Instead of working with conservatives, he chose to go into a coalition with House Democrats on those critical votes.”
Vought’s statement referred to McCarthy’s deals to lift the debt ceiling in May and to support passage of a...
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