One of the top Obama administration officials named as a target in a “dirty ops” effort seeking to discredit the Iran nuclear deal is pointing a finger at a specific Israeli private intelligence agency after a bombshell report Saturday described how an unnamed firm was hired by aides to President Trump to find damaging information about him.
Singling out Black Cube, Colin Kahl, who was a deputy assistant to former President Barack Obama, warned Sunday “lots more will be coming out” on the firm’s alleged roll in the matter “very soon.”
The former official, who also served as national security adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden, was reacting to a statement from the Israeli spy firm, which denied having any relationship with the Trump team or work regarding the Iran deal.
“It is Black Cube’s policy to never discuss its clients with any third party, and to never confirm or deny any speculation made with regard to the company’s work. Referencing Black Cube has become an international sport during 2018. Black Cube has no relation whatsoever to the Trump administration, to Trump aides, to anyone close to the administration, or to the Iran Nuclear deal. Anyone who claims otherwise is misleading their readers and viewers,” Black Cube said. “Luckily, the Mossad and the CIA are capable to deal with the Iran Nuclear deal and other issues of national security without relying on the expertise of Black Cube. It is important to note that Black Cube always operates in full compliance of the law in every jurisdiction in which it conducts its work, following legal advice from the world’s leading law firms.”
Kahl was not convinced. “To say that the least, Black Cube’s dodge is not credible,” he said.
To say that the least, Black Cube’s dodge is not credible. And lots more will be coming out on Black Cube’s role in all of this very soon. https://t.co/0bgPlVxaf5
— Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) May 6, 2018
According to the Observer’s report, officials who were tied to Trump’s team reached out to the intelligence agency after Trump visited Tel Aviv in May of last year during his first foreign tour as president. Though there was a plan of action, the report says it is unclear just how far the operation got, including any “dirt” that was dug up on Kahl.
The report was published days of from a critical deadline for the Iran deal, the 2015 agreement that put Iran’s nuclear program on ice in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions.
Despite overtures by European allies, Trump appears poised to pull out of the agreement. He has until May 12 to decide whether to continue on with the agreement, seek changes, or abandon it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has loudly voiced his opposition to the deal.
[John Bolton: Trump hasn’t decided to leave the Iran nuclear deal yet]
Earlier Kahl described in a Twitter thread how his wife received an email last year that they determined to be some sort of intelligence operation. “Perhaps it was just a coincidence that this obvious scam targeting my family had all the hallmarks of an intel op and coincided with Team Trump’s reported efforts to ‘dig up dirt’ on me,” he wrote.
A journalist, Laura Rozen of Al-Monitor, then reached out and confirmed with Kahl that the fake firm that contacted Kahl’s wife had the same name, Reuben Capital Partners, as the firm named in a New Yorker report last year that was linked to Black Cube. Talking Point Memo’s Josh Marshall pointed
That report, by Ronan Farrow, detailed how disgraced Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, hired Black Cube and another firm, Kroll, to bury allegations of sexual misconduct being levied on him by multiple women. Black Cube declined to comment for that report on any specific work it may have done for Weinstein, but did state, similar to how it responded to speculation surrounding the Observer report, that it was not company policy to discuss its clients with a third party and to “never confirm or deny any speculation made with regard to the company’s work.”
Another ex-Obama official named in the report, former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, tweeted Saturday that the “dirty ops” effort is “not behavior that should be acceptable in a democracy.”
“It is thuggish, mean-spirited, and casts a chilling and threatening cloud over public service that risks extending far beyond me [Kahl],” he added.
A spokesman for the White House national security team under Trump declined to comment for the Observer’s report.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated with Black Cube’s full statement.
