Report: State Department faults employee’s firing

WASHINGTON — A State Department employee working on Iranian policy was improperly removed from her post by officials who took into account her ethnic background, perceived political views and prior role in the Obama administration, according to a report Thursday from the agency’s inspector general.

The internal watchdog’s report recommends internal discipline for officials involved in removing the employee in the early days of the Trump administration.

The report was issued amid a House impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump focused in part on the administration’s decision to recall the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine for what the diplomat has said were unfair political reasons.

Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, who had worked for the State Department since 2012, was assigned in July 2016 to a one-year stint in the agency’s office of policy planning. But officials grew concerned in March when a website called Conservative Review published an article identifying the employee as a “trusted Obama aide” who had been an architect for that administration’s agreement aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program.

That article was forwarded to department officials at least four times. One official wrote in an email: “As background, she worked on the Iran Deal, specifically works on Iran … was born in Iran and upon my understanding cried when the President won.”

The official, Julia Haller, the acting White House liaison, said that she added the comment about Nowrouzzadeh’s place of birth because she thought it could raise conflict of interest questions. She also said her characterization of Nowrouzzadeh’s reaction to Trump’s win was likely based on office gossip but that she included it because she thought it went to questions of loyalty.