White House Stalling Probe Into $1.3B Payment to Iran

Sen. Ted Cruz Tuesday accused the Obama administration of stonewalling Congress on how it paid $1.3 billion in taxpayer money to Iran along with the $400 million in cash for the release of five American hostages in January.

"The already bizarre circumstances surrounding the $1.7 billion payment to the Islamic Republic have only gotten stranger in the weeks since we learned of the $400 million in cash that was sent to the Iranian regime last January 16th," the former 2016 presidential candidate told The Washington Free Beacon. "If this payment was, as the Obama administration insists, a straightforward settlement of an old debt that it would have cost America more to contest, why all the secrecy?"
The White House has claimed that the $400 million was to settle a 1979 dispute with Tehran, with the remaining $1.3 billion described as "interest."

State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted last week that the Obama administration withheld the $400 million cash delivery until the hostages were released — leading Republicans to accuse the White House of paying ransom for the Americans.

The agency said Monday that it did not know how those remaining dollars were transferred or to whom they was transferred, the Free Beacon reports.

"It is even more confounding that the State Department spokesman claimed Monday not to know how or to whom the residual $1.3 billion was transferred, although he does know the transaction happened," Cruz told the Free Beacon. "That kind of money doesn't just transfer itself to a rogue regime still under heavy U.S. sanctions for its sponsorship of terrorism.

"Someone in our government must have the answers the American people deserve."

Both Cruz, a first-term Texas senator, and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who is seeking his second term this fall, have requested information from Obama administration officials to determine whether the payments violated U.S. law, the Free Beacon reports.

"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 purpose of this letter is to inquire about the legality of the payment," the senators wrote in an Aug. 12 letter.

"It is imperative that the administration provide a full accounting of its conduct with respect to the $400 million cash payment to Iran," they continued. "If the administration violated the law, then Congress and the American people should be made aware of it so that they can hold the appropriate officials accountable and take whatever steps necessary to strengthen the law and prevent any reoccurrence."

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