Stefanik Co-Leads Letter Urging DOJ To Investigate the International Crisis Group For FARA Violations

Letter

Dear Attorney General Garland,

We write to urge you to investigate the International Crisis Group for potential violations of the
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), given recent revelations of its members' activities and
the groups' longstanding secret relationship with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
FARA requires all individuals in the United States acting as agents of foreign principals to
regularly disclose their status and activities as a foreign agent to the Department of Justice.
FARA is meant to protect U.S. national security by preventing organizations operating in the
United States from secretly serving the interests of a foreign power and to provide transparency
to reduce foreign agents' ability to credibly promote propaganda from hostile governments.
The International Crisis Group ("Crisis Group") is a think tank headquartered in Belgium with a
substantial presence in the United States. While the Crisis Group ostensibly conducts research on
conflict resolution, recent reporting has revealed that the group has a disturbing and longstanding
official relationship with the government of Iran. On February 2, 2024, Semafor reported that the
Crisis Group established a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2016 with the inhouse think tank of the foreign ministry of Iran, the Institute for Political and International
Studies (IPIS), which is notorious for its promotion of Holocaust denial. The Crisis Group failed
to disclose this cooperation agreement at any point in the past eight years.
In addition to the Crisis Group's official relationship with the Iranian government, the group and
many of its most prominent members have a documented history of acting on behalf of the
government of Iran. In 2021, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif described how
in 2014 he took steps to "ensure" that the Crisis Group would be "publicizing and lobbying" for
an Iranian diplomatic proposal to shorten the time it would take Iran to develop a nuclear
weapon. The Crisis Group also has employed and continues to keep on its payroll members of an
Iranian government influence operation, the "Iran Experts Initiative," such as Ali Vaez, Dina
Esfandiary, and Ariane Tabatabai. In 2014, Vaez pledged to Zarif that it was his "patriotic duty"
to help Zarif publicly oppose a U.S. negotiating position that Iran wanted to undermine. Despite
the September 2023 revelation of this pledge of loyalty to an Iranian government official, Vaez
remains the Director of the Crisis Group's Iran Project. Vaez also was a close advisor and
associate of Robert Malley, himself a former president of the Crisis Group, before Malley was
suspended from his position as the Biden administration's Special Envoy for Iran.
The Crisis Group's actions clearly represent potential violations of FARA and merit a full
investigation. Iranian government officials believe that the Crisis Group lobbied on its behalf in
public and before officials of the United States, and the group has refused to disclose an official
relationship with Iran's Foreign Ministry. Crisis Group members willfully took part in Iranian
influence operations, and the recent Crisis Group president had his security clearance revoked,
reportedly for disqualifying personal conduct and mishandling classified information.
There is a clear pattern of behavior indicating that the Crisis Group is in fact not an independent
organization, but a chief mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States. Given
this evidence, we urge you to launch an investigation of the Crisis Group without delay for
potential FARA violations to protect our nation from malign foreign influence.
Thank you for considering this important matter. We look forward to your response.

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