The head of the Justice Department’s national security division challenged the Obama administration’s decision in January to pay Iran $400 million in cash at the same time that Tehran released four American prisoners, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Assistant Attorney General John Carlin voiced concerns that Iranian authorities would view the cash transfer as a ransom payment despite a longstanding U.S. policy that bars government payments in exchange for hostages.
Several other senior Justice Department officials echoed Carlin’s concerns, but the State Department ultimately moved forward with the plan.
The U.S. sent a plane carrying $400 million in cash to Tehran on Jan. 17, one day after the Iran nuclear accord was formally implemented, as part of a broader $1.7 billion settlement over a failed arms deal from the late 1970s, before the Iranian Revolution.
Tehran that same day released four detained Americans in a prisoner swap that freed Iranians from U.S. prisons who were charged with violating sanctions laws.
While Justice Department officials did not oppose the overall $1.7 billion settlement, they worried that sending a trove of cash to Iran could send the wrong signal to Tehran and other countries about America’s longstanding hostage policy. The U.S. prohibits giving ransoms to hostage-takers.
President Obama defended the payment during a press conference last week, refuting claims that the cash transfer was a ransom and describing the controversy as the "manufacturing of outrage in a story that we disclosed in January."
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called the payment a "disgrace."
The State Department, with assistance from the CIA and FBI, spearheaded the prisoner-swap negotiations. The cash transfer was led by State Department attorneys. The White House approved the actions.