The Republican Party and the Trump Campaign have alleged that the $400 million the Obama Administration sent to Iran coinciding with the release of four imprisoned Americans was part of a ransom deal and have sought a full investigation into it.
“This administration has embarrassed our country as no administration has before, going so far as to fund Islamic terror through cash payments to Iran,” Stephen Miller, senior policy advisor to the Trump Campaign, said on Wednesday.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said the report confirmed his longstanding suspicion that the administration paid a ransom in exchange for Americans unjustly detained in Iran. Mr. Ryan was referring to a Wall Street Journal report which stated that the U.S. secretly organised an “airlift of $400 million” in hard cash to Iran that coincided with the release of four Americans in Tehran.
Senator John McCain, Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee said the the payment to Iran is disturbing, but hardly surprising given its long record of concessions to America’s adversaries. eanwhile, Donald Trump described the payment as a scandal.
However, the Obama administration denied the allegations. “The United States, under President Obama, has not paid a ransom to secure the release of Americans unjustly detained in Iran and we’re not going to pay a ransom,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. He said Republicans, who have long opposed the Iran nuclear deal, are seizing on the payment as a way to undermine the deal. “They’re struggling to justify their opposition to our engagement with Iran,” he told a briefing.
