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Scalise Statement on Pres. Obama's Cash Delivery to Iran

August 3, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) issued the following statement today after the Wall Street Journal reported that the “Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran,” the latest in a long series of troubling news reports to emerge surrounding the President’s nuclear deal with the dangerous regime:

“By paying Iran $1.7 billion in what Iranian officials themselves are calling a ‘ransom,’ the Obama administration is showing us once again how horrible their nuclear deal is for America’s national security. It is an insult to American taxpayers that their hard-earned dollars are being literally airlifted by the hundreds-of-millions to the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, even as the Obama administration admits Iran will use the money to fund terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah to the detriment of America and our allies like Israel.

“Even worse, President Obama is handing Iran this massive windfall while they still owe more than $43 billion to American victims of Iranian terror. When will President Obama stop cutting bad deals with terrorists and radical mullahs, and start enforcing these judgements against Iran for the deadly crimes they have committed against innocent Americans?

“Time and again, we have seen the dangerous lengths the Obama administration will go to in satisfying the demands of Iran while hiding the truth from the American people. We have had enough. Americans deserve to know what else this administration is hiding when it comes to their reckless dealings with Iran.”