Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is pressing the Trump intelligence community’s new leadership to investigate whether Iranian-linked operatives infiltrated the U.S. government, warning that sensitive national security information may have been compromised.

In a letter sent Wednesday to FBI Director Kash Patel and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and obtained by The New York Post, Cotton urged a “thorough” counterintelligence review into “potential criminality” surrounding Ariane Tabatabai, a senior Pentagon policy adviser accused of being tied to Tehran’s influence operations.

“I write to reiterate my concern that Iranian government-linked affiliates have influenced and may be still influencing U.S. government operations,” Cotton wrote, adding that “specifically, Ariane Tabatabai, a founding member of the so-called ‘Iranian Experts Initiatives’ (IEI), is still working with the U.S. intelligence community.”

Tabatabai, 40, an Iranian-born U.S. official who served as a top aide to former President Biden’s special envoy to Iran Robert Malley, has long faced scrutiny from Republicans. A 2023 leak of Iranian government documents described her as a willing participant in an initiative launched by Tehran’s Foreign Ministry in 2014 to promote the regime’s views in the West.

Though the Pentagon has maintained she was not tied to subsequent leaks, Israeli intelligence last October reportedly raised suspicions that Tabatabai was connected to the exposure of classified U.S. documents about a planned strike against Iran. She has retained her Pentagon post — earning $153,434 annually — and continues to hold a security clearance.

“She has been suspected of collaborating with the Islamic regime before,” a U.S.-based Iran expert told The Post in 2024. “There were some calls for her to be stripped of her security clearance.”

Cotton, who now chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, blasted the Biden administration for leaving such officials in place. “Iran’s mission is ‘death to America,’ so it’s particularly concerning that Joe Biden allowed someone so deeply connected to Iranian leadership access to our national security,” Cotton said in an interview.

Tabatabai’s tenure has been tied to the fallout from Malley, who was suspended in June 2023 for mishandling “protected material.” Malley, who encouraged a “permissive” stance toward Tehran, became a flashpoint for GOP criticism as Iran stepped up support for Hamas and Hezbollah in attacks against Israel.

Cotton’s letter accused “several Obama and Biden appointees” of “unreported recurring contact for years with Iranian officials such as then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif” and of seeking “guidance from Tehran.”

He added that affiliates of IEI “gained prominent positions both in and outside government during the Biden administration, posing significant danger to national security.”

Tabatabai grew up in Tehran, the daughter of Seyyed Javad Tabatabai, a prominent political thinker with close ties to former Iranian presidents Muhammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani. She has not publicly addressed her role in IEI.

For years, Republicans have labeled her a spy, a claim intelligence officials under Biden denied. But suspicions persisted after leaks damaged Israel’s war effort in 2023–24 and as Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel.

Cotton closed his letter with a pointed call for action: “While the Biden administration ignored repeated calls from Republicans to remove officials affiliated with IEI and the Iranian government, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Defense (DoD) should now correct this mistake.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)