Chairman Royce on Reports That Obama Secretly Sent $400M to Iran: ‘It Keeps Getting Worse’

Republicans lashed out Tuesday at the Obama administration over a news report claiming it airlifted $400 million in foreign currency to Tehran on the same day the regime released five imprisoned Americans.

On that day in January, the U.S. agreed to settle a 37-year-old Iranian legal claim worth $400 million, plus an additional $1.3 billion in interest. The two developments also coincided with the “implementation day” for the nuclear deal struck between Tehran, the U.S. and five other nations.

The administration has long denied that the $1.7 billion settlement was related to the prisoner releases, or that it amounted to a “ransom.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the cash, in European and other currencies, was secretly flown to Iran on wooden pallets in an unmarked cargo plane, and that it was a first instalment of the agreed-upon $1.7 billion payout.

Citing U.S. and European officials and congressional staffers who had been briefed later, it said the U.S. had sent the equivalent of $400 million to the Dutch and Swiss central banks, where it was converted and provided in foreign currency, then flown to Iran.

The report quoted State Department spokesman John Kirby as reiterating the administration’s denial of any link between the payment and release of the imprisoned Americans.

The two negotiations, he said, “were completely separate” and were also handled by different teams

More