The $400 million cash payment the Obama administration paid to Iran was not only a breach of U.S. policy against paying ransoms for hostages, it is now funding terrorism around the world, former GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra tells Newsmax TV.
"This was a quid pro quo, regardless of what Josh Earnest says," Hoekstra told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth on Wednesday.
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Earnest, the White House's spokesman, said earlier Wednesday that the cash payment reported by The Wall Street Journal was not made in exchange for the release of four jailed Americans, though their release came just hours after a cargo plane loaded with wooden pallets of cash landed in Tehran.
American dollars were traded for euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currencies that were given to Iran, leading to charges from Republicans that the money was essentially laundered.
Had a Republican president done the same thing the media coverage "wouldn't have been anything like what we're seeing today. It's almost total silence," Hoekstra said.
"It was not only laundering money," he said. "American citizens were trying to lay claim to this money. They were suing Iran for what Iran had done to them. That money is now gone. It's funding terrorism to do more damage the Israel, U.S. and European interests."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that victims of a 1983 bombing could sue Iran from the funds recently unfrozen in the Iran nuclear deal.
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