And does the Biden administration realize it? Congress increasingly suspects that Iran has more information about US policy than they do — and proof just dropped into their laps. Or, rather, on the doorsteps of Iranian newspaper subscribers.

For weeks, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has demanded to see why Biden’s special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, suddenly got suspended from that position. They didn’t even know about it for two months, and spent the next two months trying to find out what happened. They don’t have to subpoena the State Department, however, as the Tehran Times published the “sensitive but unclassified” memo on Sunday.

Now Congress wants some answers, pronto, as Politico reported late yesterday:

The media outlet reported Sunday — based on what it claimed was an April 21 memo from a top State Department diplomatic security official to Malley — that Malley’s top secret clearance was suspended over “serious security concerns” related to his “personal conduct,” “handling of protected information” and “use of information technology.”

It published what it said was the memo, which is labeled as “sensitive but unclassified.”

A person familiar with the investigation into Malley who has seen the original memo told POLITICO that the Tehran Times’ version appeared to match that original. Like others contacted for this story, the person was granted anonymity to discuss a highly sensitive topic.

Follow the link to the Tehran Times if you want to be better informed than Congress had been until a hot second ago. One has to wonder why this memo was withheld from the committee in the first place. Its “sensitivity” relates to the personnel issues involved, not any specific nat-sec information. Malley had his clearance suspended pending further review over questions about his personal conduct, classified-material handling, and apparently some communications violations. There are no specifics in the memo relating to any of these allegations, so why State and the Biden administration denied Congress access to this is anyone’s guess.

That’s reason enough to steam House Foreign Affairs chair Mike McCaul (R-TX). But this isn’t the first time that the Biden administration has had sensitive information requested by Congress appear first on the hardliner-backed Tehran Times, and McCaul wants to know where the leak is:

“If this memo is authentic, it is extremely concerning, especially since this is not the first time the Iranian regime’s mouthpiece has appeared to have sensitive U.S. government information recently while Congress is kept in the dark,” McCaul said.

Close observers of Iran believe the English-language Tehran Times is controlled by hardline Iranian government factions. The outlet published several stories in recent months that appear to put it ahead of other media, including Washington outlets, on the Malley case.

Intelligence analyst John Schindler also notes that the Tehran Times has had a curiously good track record on getting closely held information on this story. Schindler also scolds the American media establishment in its comparatively poor reporting on Malley’s predicament:

The State Department and the White House remain silent about what’s going on here, over four months after Malley had his access to state secrets suspended. For their part, the mainstream media remains shockingly uninterested in this entire affair. Although MSM outlets have reported Malley’s career meltdown, they haven’t exactly been chomping at the bit to get to the bottom of this murky saga. The story appears too hot to touch for elite Washington journalists, contrary to their oft-professed desire to “speak truth to power.” When it comes to the Obama-Biden administrations, power beats out truth every time regarding muckraking reportage on the Potomac.

Which brings us to perhaps the oddest aspect of this decidedly odd scandal. Contrary to the timidity of the Washington press corps in this affair, state-linked Iranian media has broken several detailed exclusives in the Malley scandal. In particular, Tehran Times, an English-language outlet that’s cozy with Iran’s foreign ministry, has reported extensively on this story in a manner that puts American journalists to shame.

Now, the Tehran Times has dropped another bombshell by publishing what purports to be the State Department internal memo, dated April 21 of this year, informing Malley that his security clearances were suspended pending a counterintelligence investigation.

Schindler has more for his subscribers, but it’s enough to corroborate McCaul and Politico on the issue of “scoops” by the Tehran Times. Someone inside the Biden administration is leaking information to the Iranians. One might have considered the alternative scenario before this weekend, which is that the Iranian Foreign Ministry was simply sending their information to their own proxy publication. Now, however, that’s clearly not all that’s happening — not unless it’s SOP to copy the Iranians on “sensitive but unclassified” personnel memos, along with all of the e-mails and phone numbers for State Department officials involved in the review.

Especially with memos that the Biden administration and State Department refuse to allow Congress to access as part of their normal oversight function. Add that to the suspicions of incompetence in an administration that just agreed to free up $6 billion in frozen assets as a de facto ransom for a handful of American hostages in Tehran, and it looks as though a potential mole may not just be leaking information but helping to set policy, too.

The irony of this is that Malley might have been on the short list of people who would otherwise come under suspicion. Malley had a track record of sympathetic leanings toward Iran, which is undoubtedly why he had risen to the role in the first place. Malley had to walk away from Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign when his contacts with the State-listed, Iran-backed terror group Hamas came to light in May 2008. He joined the Obama administration’s National Security Council in February 2014 anyway, and led negotiations that led to Obama’s Iran deal. He came on board at the start of the Biden administration to restore the JCPOA, and has presided over a couple of questionable deal offers and actions, although the latest $6 billion ransom payment came after his suspension.

And this fits the allegations in the letter published by the Tehran Times, in a way: personal conduct regarding sensitive information and the use of information technology. But would Malley be so foolish as to make himself such an obvious suspect? This leak makes it seem as though the leaker might have a grudge against Malley by embarrassing him as well as the State Department. The Tehran Times clearly doesn’t much like Malley, accusing him of leading a “diplomatic coup” attempt against the Iranian mullahs during the Mahsa Amini  protests last year.

And one last point: Malley presumably wants his job back. Would he torpedo that chance by leaking a memo about himself? And would the Iranians burn their source by putting him at the top of the suspect list? Both of those make it seem very unlikely that Malley is the Iranians’ source within the Biden administration, especially the latter.

Nevertheless, that still leaves the question as to how the Tehran Times knows more about the workings of State than Congress does, as well as the question of whether someone is influencing policy on behalf of the Iranian mullahs. McCaul needs to get to the bottom of both questions ASAP.