WASHINGTON: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to determine why Robin Raphel brought home classified information and whether she passed it to a foreign government, the US media reported on Saturday.

The US media reported on Friday that the FBI was probing counter-intelligence charges against Ms Raphel, a former US ambassador and a long-time US expert on Pakistan.

The FBI searched Ms Raphel’s Washington home on Oct 21 and later also searched and sealed her office at the State Department.

Ms Raphel is admired in Pakistan as an old friend of the country but she is disliked in India for advocating Pakistan’s case in Washington.

A spokesperson for the US State Department told journalists on Friday that Ms Raphel was “under investigation” and that she no longer worked for the department. She was working as an economic and development adviser on Pakistan and her contract expired on Nov 2. She was not offered another contract.

“The nature of the investigation is unclear, but officials said the FBI was trying to determine why Ms Raphel apparently brought classified information home, and whether she had passed, or was planning to pass, the information to a foreign government,” The New York Times reported.

FBI counter-intelligence agents, who are conducting the investigation, have a broad mandate, which includes investigating US citizens suspected of spying for other nations, and examining the mishandling of classified information.

“It is extremely rare for the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into such a prominent Washington figure,” NYT noted.

The decision to open the inquiry, “whatever its outcome, will have a lasting impact on Ms. Raphel’s ability in the future to operate within American diplomatic circles,” the newspaper pointed out.

The Washington Post reported that Ms Raphel had been stripped of her security clearances as part of the investigation.

Andrew Rice, a spokesman for Ms Raphel, told NYT that she had not been informed whether she was a target of the investigation, adding that “her nearly 40 years of public service at the highest levels of US diplomacy speak for themselves.”

“I’m confident this will be resolved,” Mr Rice said.

The Washington Post first reported the investigation on its website Thursday night. Ms Raphel retired from the Foreign Service in 2005 and joined Cassidy & Associates, a firm that has done lobbying work for the government of Pakistan.

In 2009, the American Embassy in Pakistan hired her as aid and development expert. She returned to Washington in 2011 as a senior adviser on Pakistan issues for the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2014