UNCOVERED: Obama Secretly Sent Additional $1.3B To Iran

On top of sending Iran pallets of unmarked foreign currency worth $400 million, the Obama Administration was forced to admit Tuesday night that they transferred an additional $1.3 billion just days later.

The payment was purportedly interest on the settlement of a 1979 arms deal between the two countries immediately before the Islamic Revolution.

On Jan. 17, the Obama Administration airlifted the $400 million in euros and Swiss francs on pallets. Tehran released four American prisoners on the exact same day.

When there were cries that it was a ransom payment, the Obama Administration was forced to admit the money was used as “leverage” to secure the release of the hostages, The Wall Street Journal reports. Administration officials told lawmakers about the $1.3 billion during a briefing Tuesday.

The Obama administration briefed lawmakers on Tuesday, telling them that two further portions of the $1.3 billion were transferred though Europe on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5. The payment “flowed in the same manner” as the original $400 million that an Iranian cargo plane picked up in Geneva, Switzerland, according to a congressional aide who took part in the briefing.

That makes the total amount paid to Iran at $1.7 billion – all in cash.

Paying it in cash was essential because Iran U.S. sanctions have effectively left Iran isolated from the world banking systems.

The money came from a little-known fund administered by the Treasury Department for settling litigation claims. The so-called Judgment Fund is taxpayer money Congress has permanently approved in the event it’s needed, allowing the president to bypass direct congressional approval to make a settlement. The U.S. previously paid out $278 million in Iran-related claims by using the fund in 1991.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are concerned that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps would use the money to finance their military allies in the Middle East, including terrorist regimes, the Assad regime in Syria, Houthi militias in Yemen, and the Hezbollah.

A bill introduced by congressional Republicans on Tuesday would block the Treasury Department from making any payments to Iran until Tehran returns the $1.7 billion to the U.S. and pays the American terrorism victims. Three dual U.S.-Iranian citizens are still being held in Iran.

“The U.S. government should not be in the business of negotiating with terrorists and paying ransom money in exchange for the release of American hostages,” Sen. Marco Rubio said.

H/T: Washington Free Beacon

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UNCOVERED: Obama Secretly Sent Additional $1.3 BILLION To Iran

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