Overview
- Thursday’s reporting, drawing on The New York Times and other outlets, alleges David Milstein, a senior adviser to Ambassador Mike Huckabee, repeatedly quashed or rewrote urgent embassy memos and cables from Jerusalem before they reached Washington.
- Embassy staff told reporters that after Milstein took charge of Palestinian affairs in April 2025 the number and candor of cables fell sharply because officers stopped drafting reports they expected him to block.
- One disputed case involves a March approval of an unusually large set of West Bank settlements that embassy officials viewed as crossing a policy red line, and another involves a detailed internal report on the killings of nine U.S. citizens that lawmakers sought but did not receive in full.
- Huckabee has categorically denied the allegations and pushed back on the reporting while members of Congress led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen have pressed for answers and White House and State Department officials previously contacted embassy staff directly.
- Coverage differs across outlets with left-leaning outlets stressing alleged withholding of facts and national security risks, right-leaning outlets noting Milstein’s political ties and denials, and reporting so far leaves unclear whether the edits changed U.S. policy or spurred a formal investigation.