The New York Post reported exclusively that Republican Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the US Congress, sent an urgent letter to FBI Director Kash Patel and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, demanding an investigation into the presence of elements suspected of being linked to Iran within the American intelligence community.
The letter called on the FBI and the Department of Defense to conduct a review “comprehensively from a counterintelligence perspective and potential criminal violations,” warning of the possibility that “information pertaining to national security has been provided to a hostile foreign power,” or that American citizens working for a hostile government may have sought to influence American policy.
In the same letter, Cotton warned that “individuals associated with the Iranian government have influenced and may still be influencing US government operations,” specifically referring to Ariane Tabatabai, a senior policy advisor at the Pentagon who has previously been accused of espionage.
The letter indicates that Tabatabai, a founding member of the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), held a prominent position in the State Department during the Biden administration, and continues to work at the Pentagon as a senior policy advisor.
Tabatabai, 40, who was born in Iran, was accused in leaked documents in 2023 of being a voluntary recruit in an influence operation run by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
The newspaper stated that supporters of the Iranian regime are suspected of infiltrating American intelligence agencies and directing some policies. The documents show that Tabatabai was involved in establishing the Iran Experts Initiative in 2014, an initiative launched by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to “promote Tehran’s arguments in the West.”
Tabatabai was also a senior aide to Robert Malley, the Biden administration’s special envoy to Iran, who was suspended from his job in June 2023 for mishandling “protected materials.” Critics accuse him of being at the center of a wide-ranging scandal in the State Department, by adopting a lenient stance towards Iran, which – according to the allegations – allowed Hamas and Hezbollah to be assisted in launching attacks against Israel.
Republicans have long described Tabatabai as a spy, an allegation that US intelligence officials during the Biden era have repeatedly denied.
Last October, when US documents related to a planned strike against Iran were leaked, a development considered a major blow to the Israeli military effort, Israeli intelligence pointed directly to Tabatabai as a possible source behind the leak.
Cotton’s letter confirmed that the Biden administration ignored calls to “clean up” institutions from foreign elements working within the Pentagon, warning that US adversaries “have obtained prominent positions inside and outside the government during the Biden administration.”
The report quoted an American expert on Iranian affairs in 2024 as saying: “There have been previous suspicions about her cooperation with the Iranian regime, and some have called for her security clearance to be withdrawn.” However, the Department of Defense previously confirmed that she is not suspected in the leak incident.
Cotton spoke to The New York Post after sending the letter, stressing the need to address what he described as “holes in the ship of national security left by the Biden administration.” He said: “Iran raises the slogan ‘Death to America’, and therefore it is very worrying that Joe Biden allows someone with this degree of connection to the Iranian leadership to have access to our national security.” He added that both the FBI and the Department of Defense “must continue to correct the security failures of the Biden administration.”
Tabatabai still holds her position at the Pentagon, with a salary of $153,434 per year, in addition to her security clearance.
The newspaper points out that Tabatabai grew up in Tehran, and is the daughter of Seyed Javad Tabatabai, one of the most prominent Iranian political thinkers, who was close to Iranian Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani before his death in 2023.
In the letter addressed to Patel and Hegseth, Cotton, as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned that members of the IEI had obtained “prominent positions inside and outside the government during the Biden administration, posing a threat to national security.” According to the Iran International network, the initiative was launched in 2014 with the aim of “promoting Tehran’s positions in the West.” Tabatabai has not spoken publicly about her role in it.
The Department of Defense said: “We have received Senator Cotton’s letter, and we will send our response directly to his office.”
The letter concluded by accusing “several officials appointed by Obama and Biden” of making frequent and unreported contacts over the years with Iranian officials, including former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and seeking guidance from him. The letter stated: “While the Biden administration has ignored repeated calls to remove officials linked to the IEI and the Iranian government, the FBI and the Department of Defense should now correct this error.”
