Vice President Kamala Harris is stonewalling a congressional inquiry into her national security adviser's ties to an Iranian government influence network, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) launched the inquiry last month into Harris adviser Phil Gordon's longstanding relationship with Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai, who was outed last year as an alleged member of an Iranian-run influence network that reported back to Tehran's foreign ministry.
Cotton and Stefanik gave Harris an Aug. 9 deadline to provide detailed information about Gordon's relationship with Tabatabai and links to pro-Tehran advocacy groups, which the lawmakers said raise questions about his eligibility to hold a top-secret security clearance. Harris did not reply.
"You failed to respond by my deadline or to appropriately address this threat to national security emanating from your staff," Cotton wrote to the vice president's office on Thursday, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Free Beacon. "The presence of such an obvious security risk in your inner circle should have elicited your utmost attention. It raises the question of whether you've been aware of Mr. Gordon's possible links to the Iranian regime and simply find your policies aligned enough with Tehran's interests that ties to that regime don't concern you."
Gordon has emerged as one of Harris's closest foreign policy advisers and is expected to play a central national security role if she is elected president, including potentially as secretary of state. Harris has already onboarded several campaign advisers who support increased diplomacy with Iran, including Ilan Goldenberg, her former Middle East adviser and current campaign liaison to the Jewish community.
Harris has also expressed a willingness to publicly clash with Israel and pressure it to stop confronting Tehran's terror proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah. She called in March for an immediate Israeli ceasefire, rebuking the Jewish state for sparking a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza.
"I understand that it may be difficult to discern Iranian agents from the left-wing ideologues on your staff," Cotton wrote. "But you have the responsibility to make these difficult distinctions and appropriately vet the people you elevate to positions of distinction and trust."
According to an initial July 31 investigatory letter from Cotton and Stefanik, Gordon published multiple articles with Tabatabai "blatantly promoting the Iranian regime's perspective and interests."
Those pieces were published after Tabatabai was alleged to be working for the Iran Experts Initiative, an influence network that included several American policymakers associated with the Biden administration's former Iran envoy, Robert Malley, who was indefinitely suspended from his job amid allegations he leaked classified information.
In a March 2020 article, Gordon and Tabatabai "claimed continued sanctions on Iran would create 'catastrophe' in the Middle East," according to Cotton and Stefanik's letter. In another piece, Gordon and Tabatabai claimed economic sanctions on Tehran could prompt Iran to "lash out with attacks on its neighbors, and on Americans and American interests in the Middle East."
"Each prediction was as wrong," Cotton and Stefanik said last month, "as it was biased in favor of Tehran."
Tabatabai was found to have visited the Biden-Harris White House at least eight times after her links to the Iranian influence network were exposed, the Free Beacon first reported earlier this week. Those visits included meetings organized by the White House Presidential Personnel Office, which is responsible for recruiting and vetting nominees across the government.
Gordon met in February at the White House with Ali Vaez, a pro-Tehran analyst who, along with Tabatabai, reportedly has ties to the Iranian influence operation, visitor logs show.
Harris, Cotton said in his latest letter, must "immediately investigate Mr. Gordon's ties to the Iranian regime and provide responses" to the July 31 letter.
Cotton further notes that, since that initial letter, Gordon has continued "to demonstrate a pattern of anti-Israel bias, which furthers Iranian interests."
In an Aug. 10 tweet, for instance, Gordon said he is "deeply concerned about reports of civilian casualties in Gaza" and accused Israel of targeting "innocent Palestinians."
"If he's willing to ridicule Israel so unfairly in public," Cotton wrote to Harris, "we can only imagine what he is telling you in private."
A Biden-Harris administration official derided Cotton's letter as "baseless and absurd" and defended Gordon's "career as a national security expert and public servant respected on both sides of the aisle."
"Throughout that time, he has been a staunch advocate of concrete efforts to oppose malign activities by Iran and its terrorist proxies and to support Israel and its security, including by this Administration," the official said. "Even now, Dr. Gordon and the rest of the Administration's national security team are actively preparing to help defend Israel if attacked again by Iran—and that's what we’re going to stay focused on. It is unfortunate that Senator Cotton is spending his time and energy on dishonest and easily rebuttable personal attacks instead of treating issues such as the threat from Iran and the security of Israel with the seriousness with which they deserve."
Update 2:17 p.m.: This piece has been updated with comment from a Biden-Harris administration official.