By John Hudson, Buzzfeed:

…Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has promoted a diplomat who provided classified information to an influential pro-Israel lobbying organization that resulted in espionage charges.

David Satterfield, a long time Middle East hand with extensive experience in the region, has been named acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, a State Department official told BuzzFeed News.

In 2005, federal prosecutors said Satterfield provided classified national security secrets to a top lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful special interest group known simply as AIPAC. The accusation was included in an indictment that charged two former AIPAC employees, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, and a former Pentagon official, Lawrence Franklin, under the Espionage Act with illegally trafficking in classified information.

Satterfield avoided prosecution in the case after top State Department officials argued to the FBI that Satterfield had acted within his authority in sharing the information.

Franklin pleaded guilty to espionage-related charges in 2006, and prosecutors dropped the case against Rosen and Weissman in 2009.

In the 2005 indictment, prosecutors said an unnamed US government official provided Rosen with classified information during two meetings. The New York Times and other news outlets later identified Satterfield as the unnamed official listed as “USGO-2” who passed on information about Iran, al-Qaeda, and US-Israel intelligence sharing. Rosen then allegedly passed some of that information to an Israeli official.