WSJ: Justice Department Officials Raised Objections On U.S. Cash Payment To Iran

“This administration has embarassed our country as no administration has before, going so far as to fund Islamic terror through cash payments to Iran. Nothing less than a full investigation is required, and if email-destroying Hillary Clinton can’t break from Obama on this then she is even more corrupt than anyone imagined.” - Stephen Miller, Senior Policy Advisor

Please read the following excerpts from “Justice Department Officials Raised Objections On U.S. Cash Payment To Iran” by Devlin Barrett, The Wall Street Journal, 8/3/16

“Senior Justice Department officials objected to sending a plane loaded with cash to Tehran at the same time that Iran released four imprisoned Americans, but their objections were overruled by the State Department, according to people familiar with the discussions.

What wasn’t disclosed at the time was that the first payment would be $400 million in cash, flown in as the prisoners were released, as The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The timing and manner of the payment raised alarms at the Justice Department, according to those familiar with the discussions.

“People knew what it was going to look like, and there was concern the Iranians probably did consider it a ransom payment,’’ said one of the people.

…

But the concerns in the department show that even within the Obama administration there were worries that the pallets of cash could send the wrong signal to Iran—and potentially to others—about U.S. policy when it came to hostages.

…

The Justice Department raised other objections to the Iran deals.

Prosecutors were concerned that the U.S. would release too many Iranian convicts and drop too many pending criminal cases against people suspected of violating sanctions laws.

…

The cash transfer and prisoner exchange coincided with the formal implementation that same weekend of the landmark nuclear agreement reached between Tehran, the U.S. and other global powers the summer before.”