Joel Rayburn, Trump nominee for State Department Middle East post, on hold

President Trump’s pick for a key State Department position in charge of Middle East policy is being held up in the Senate and will not be voted on Wednesday as part of a group of high-ranking nominees.

Joel Rayburn, nominee for assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May and had been scheduled to be part of a committee vote on Wednesday on approving at least 32 nominees for senior State Department and ambassadorial posts. The nominees are then expected to be voted on shortly after by the full Senate.

However, Mr. Rayburn, who worked in the State Department’s Near East office and for the White House National Security Council during the first Trump administration, is being held up by Sen. Rand Paul, a person familiar with the matter said.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James E. Risch announced at a hearing June 5 that he was removing Mr. Rayburn’s nomination from a group of nominees to be voted on together. “I will continue to keep Mr. Rayburn in my pocket here,” he said. 

Asked why by Sen. Bill Hagerty, Mr. Risch said:  “I removed him for reasons I will discuss with you later, Senator Hagerty, if that is all right. You wouldn’t like the result.”

Spokesmen for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Mr. Paul did not respond to email requests for comment.

Mr. Paul, a libertarian, has been a critic of U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

Mr. Paul confronted Mr. Rayburn during the nomination hearing May 15 about his past relationship with former State Department envoy James Jeffries who revealed in 2020 that he routinely misled senior government officials about the numbers of U.S. troops in Syria.

The effort to hide troop numbers was related to bureaucratic opposition to then-President Trump’s decision to abruptly withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria in 2018.

Mr. Rayburn testified that he was a close colleague of Mr. Jeffries but had no role in any deception by the former envoy.

Mr. Rayburn said the comments by the former envoy were “inaccurate” and “not correct,” noting that the State Department had no information on troop numbers or reporting to the president on the numbers.

“It did not happen,” he said.

Asked by Mr. Paul if he was aware of or complicit with Mr. Jeffries in a deception, Mr. Rayburn said: “Absolutely not, senator. Never participated in any such thing; never would have participated in any such thing. I never saw it.”

The Kentucky Republican then asked if Mr. Rayburn was aware of an email exchange on troop levels. Mr. Rayburn said he was not aware of any email or conversations.

“It bothers me quite a bit. I think what James Jeffries did was tantamount to treason, basically,” Mr. Paul said.

Sen. Hagerty, a supporter of Mr. Rayburn’s nomination, said at the hearing in response to Sen. Paul’s criticism that “I am extremely troubled by any attempt to somehow use guilt by association.”

Sen. Hagerty said he has known Mr. Rayburn for years “as a soldier, as a gentleman as a man who is beyond reproach” and vouched for his integrity as a nominee for the post.

“You have been one of the most loyal members of the former Trump administration and made significant contributions,” the Tennessee Republican said.

Mr. Rayburn said he has supported Mr. Trump during the first administration and after.

During the first administration, Mr. Rayburn said he played a part in reaching the Abraham Accords agreement.