State Department: US held up cash until Iran released Americans

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday morning published new details about the controversial $400 million cash payment, writing us officials held the money until they had confirmation the prisoners were released.

On Wednesday, the paper reported, citing unnamed USA officials and other sources briefed on the operation, that at a time of the suspected exchange the United States waited for a Swiss Air Force aircraft carrying the three freed U.S. citizens to take off from Tehran before allowing Iranian officials take the sum and depart home on a cargo plane from a Geneva airport.

“Claims that the freed Americans were not allowed to depart until a ‘plane full of cash, ‘ and I’m doing that in air quotes, are just false”, Trudeau told AP on August 8.

A statement from Rubio’s re-election campaign also called out Rubio’s most-likely Democratic challenger in the November election, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, for supporting President Barack Obama and for being largely silent on the Iran deal.

But the handling of the payment and its connection to the Americans’ release have raised questions among lawmakers and administration critics.

Pressed to state definitively whether “you wouldn’t give them the $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released”, Kirby replied: “That is correct”. The exchange was later revealed to have been a year in the making, despite claims by administration officials that the subject of a prisoner release was never broached during nuclear-related negotiations.

“We actually had diplomatic negotiations and conversations with Iran for the first time in several decades”, Obama said earlier this month.

“While we are deeply concerned about the national security implications of the administration’s cash-for-hostages scheme, especially in light of reports that Iran has already arrested additional Americans, the goal of this letter is to inquire about the legality of the payment”, Sens.

One other USA citizen freed in the January prisoner exchange was released separately.

Administration officials downplayed any ransom-connection, attributing the huge cash payment to an arms deal almost four decades old and the timing to coincidence.

Pompeo said he wasn’t to “figure out if the law was broken and if so, by whom”. “Who instructed them to do it and on what authority”.

Mr. Duffy asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to identify all “persons within the [Justice] Department authorizing or otherwise taking steps to carry out the payment”. Notably, the $400 million payment was made despite concerns expressed by senior Justice Department officials that the payment would appear to be a ransom.

The prisoner swap fueled skepticism about the extent to which the U.S. may have appeased Iran in the name of finalizing the landmark nuclear deal.

The House Financial Services Committee hasn’t yet decided whether to hold hearings. As a result, he explained, the U.S.