US Transportation Secretary Nominee Received $50,000 from the Mojahedin-e Khalq

On Sunday, February 5, the Associated Press reported that Donald Trump's nominee for the US Department of Transportation and at least one of his advisors had spoken for money on behalf of the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization of Iran. According to the news agency, Elaine Chao, the proposed secretary of the US president, confirmed this week that she received $50,000 in 2015 for a five-minute speech before the political branch of the Mojahedin-e Khalq. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who has also been selected as an advisor in the Trump administration, has received unspecified amounts from them for speaking at Mojahedin gatherings. The Associated Press described the Mojahedin as an exiled group that committed murder against Americans before the 1979 revolution; after the revolution, they resorted to deceptive means to gather financial support for their organizational survival; individuals who set themselves on fire for the freedom of their imprisoned leader, and an organization whose political branch had previously been described by the US State Department as a 'cult.' The news agency wrote that dozens of former American officials from both the Republican and Democratic parties, including Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, have spoken for the Mojahedin and received money; some have confirmed receiving money while others preferred silence. The Associated Press noted that while receiving money is not prohibited, it raises the question of how much influence these exiles have on the new US government. The news agency recalled that a group of former American officials, including Rudy Giuliani, encouraged Trump last month to engage in dialogue with the political branch of the Mojahedin. The Associated Press added that as the Trump administration recently included Iranians in its entry restrictions to the US and simultaneously placed Iran 'under surveillance' while announcing new sanctions against Iran, the Mojahedin may welcome the Trump administration more than ever. The news agency stated that with the potential formation of an alliance with the Mojahedin, the US would be aligning itself with an organization that has a controversial history and has previously acted against US interests by supporting the Iranian revolution and the occupation of the US embassy in Tehran. The Associated Press added that after fleeing Iran, the Mojahedin allied with the dictatorial forces of Saddam Hussein in Iraq—although they later exposed details of the then-secret nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which sees them as its sworn enemy. Ervand Abrahamian, a professor at City University of New York, told the Associated Press that since the Mojahedin apparently bet on a 'winning horse,' they can now enter the Trump administration. However, Professor Abrahamian, who has written a book about the Mojahedin, added that increased access for the Mojahedin to the Trump administration would weaken the US because more people in Iran would be concerned about any US actions. The Associated Press reminded that the Mojahedin have a long history of establishing relationships with former officials of the US and European governments; they invite them to speak at their conferences and spend money on travel and speeches for many of them. Elaine Chao, the wife of Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader in the US Senate, spoke at a Mojahedin conference in Paris in 2015, and a seat next to Maryam Rajavi, whom the Mojahedin call 'the elected president,' was reserved for her. Ms. Chao reported receiving $50,000 for her 2015 appearance in Paris in her tax report to US oversight agencies (on the verge of assuming the post of Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration); the following year, in 2016, she received another $17,500 for a speech from the Iranian-American Cultural Council in Missouri, which is also connected to the Mojahedin. Elaine Chao did not respond to the Associated Press's inquiries regarding the Mojahedin—just as Rudy Giuliani also left the news agency's question unanswered, and the White House has yet to respond to the Associated Press's inquiries. Giuliani's last tax report dates back to the Republican debates in 2008, in which he was unsuccessful; since then, this former mayor of New York has not been required to submit his tax report to the relevant authorities to determine how much he has received for his speeches and participation in Mojahedin meetings. Newt Gingrich, the Republican Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, has spoken before the Mojahedin; including in 2016 at a gala in the suburbs of Paris at a large Mojahedin meeting (alongside a senior former Saudi official)—although it is unclear how much he received. Mohammad Mohaddessin, head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the political branch of the Mojahedin, welcomed the presence of figures in the Trump administration who support changing US policy towards Iran in an interview with the Associated Press. According to Mohaddessin, the Mojahedin primarily seek a more stringent policy towards Iran that 'does not leave the regime's crimes against the Iranian people unanswered.' However, the Associated Press, citing a history of the formation of the Mojahedin and its activities in various periods, wrote that it has been 'proven' that exile groups cannot be reliable allies for the US in the Middle East. The news agency cited an example of distrust of Middle Eastern exiles in Ahmad Chalabi, an Iraqi exile who, through strong lobbying among American officials and falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction or incorrectly asserting that Iraq was connected to al-Qaeda under Saddam Hussein, encouraged George Bush's cabinet to attack Iraq. However, there is still no sign that the Trump administration is seeking to have close relations with the Mojahedin. The Associated Press reminded that while the Mojahedin pay former American officials to buy time, the family of Colonel Jack Turner, who was killed by the Mojahedin in Iran in 1975, has filed a request for $35 million in damages from Iran and the Mojahedin in a Colorado court. The survivors of Colonel Turner have made the simple argument for their request that unlike the Americans taken hostage (at the US embassy in Tehran), their father never had the chance to return to his loved ones.