U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and a group of Republican colleagues sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding answers regarding the approximately $6 billion the Administration released to Iran in exchange for American prisoners.
Young
In addition to Senators Young and Scott, U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Kennedy (R-La.), and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also joined the letter.
In the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, the senators wrote:
“When the Obama administration released $400 million in liquidated assets to Iran in 2016, we warned that this dangerous precedent would put a price on American lives. Seven years later, the current administration is providing a ransom payment worth at least fifteen times that amount to the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, in yet another violation of the United States’ long-standing ‘no concessions’ policy. In the release of Executive Order 14078 on July 19, 2022, the White House admitted that ‘terrorist organizations, criminal groups, and other malicious actors who take hostages for financial, political, or other gain—as well as foreign states that engage in the practice of wrongful detention, including for political leverage or to seek concessions from the United States—threaten the integrity of the international political system and the safety of United States nationals and other persons abroad.’ The release of such a significant sum to the Iranian regime runs entirely counter to that claim and will only serve to encourage additional hostage taking for financial or political gain.”
Click here to read the full letter.