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Free Beacon: Attorney General Lynch ‘Pleads Fifth’ on Secret Iran ‘Ransom’ Payments

Obama admin blocking congressional probe into cash payments to Iran

By Adam Kredo

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by leading members of Congress about the Obama administration’s secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has “pleaded the Fifth” Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.

In an Oct. 24 response, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch’s behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.

The response from the attorney general’s office is “unacceptable” and provides evidence that Lynch has chosen to “essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries regarding [her] role in providing cash to the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism,” Rubio and Pompeo wrote on Friday in a follow-up letter to Lynch, according to a copy obtained by the Free Beacon.

The inquiry launched by the lawmakers is just one of several concurrent ongoing congressional probes aimed at unearthing a full accounting of the administration’s secret negotiations with Iran.

“It is frankly unacceptable that your department refuses to answer straightforward questions from the people’s elected representatives in Congress about an important national security issue,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your staff failed to address any of our questions, and instead provided a copy of public testimony and a lecture about the sensitivity of information associated with this issue.”

“As the United States’ chief law enforcement officer, it is outrageous that you would essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries,” they stated. “The actions of your department come at time when Iran continues to hold Americans hostage and unjustly sentence them to prison.”

The lawmakers included a copy of their previous 13 questions and are requesting that Lynch provide answers by Nov. 4.

When asked about Lynch’s efforts to avoid answering questions about the cash payment, Pompeo told the Free Beacon that the Obama administration has blocked Congress at every turn as lawmakers attempt to investigate the payments to Iran.

“Who knew that simple questions regarding Attorney General Lynch’s approval of billions of dollars in payments to Iran could be so controversial that she would refuse to answer them?” Pompeo said. “This has become the Obama administration’s coping mechanism for anything related to the Islamic Republic of Iran—hide information, obfuscate details, and deny answers to Congress and the American people.”

“They know this isn’t a sustainable strategy, however, and I trust they will start to take their professional, and moral, obligations seriously,” the lawmaker added.

In the Oct. 24 letter to Rubio and Pompeo, Assistant Attorney General Kadzik warned the lawmakers against disclosing to the public any information about the cash payment.

Details about the deal are unclassified, but are being kept under lock and key in a secure facility on Capitol Hill, the Free Beacon first disclosed. Lawmakers and staffers who have clearance to view the documents are forced to relinquish their cellular devices and are barred from taking any notes about what they see.

“Please note that these documents contain sensitive information that is not appropriate for public release,” Kadzik wrote to the lawmakers. “Disclosure of this information beyond members of the House and Senate and staff who are able to view them could adversely affect the diplomatic relations of the United States, including with key allies, as well as the State Department’s ability to defend [legal] claims against the United States [by Iran] that are still being litigated at the Hague Tribunal.”

“The public release of any portion of these documents, or the information contained therein, is not authorized by the transmittal of these documents or by this communication,” Kadzik wrote.

Congressional sources have told the Free Beacon that this is another part of the effort to hide details about these secret negotiations with Iran from the American public.

One senior congressional source familiar with both the secret documents and the inquiry into them told the Free Beacon that the details of the negotiations are so damning that the administration’s best strategy is to ignore lawmakers’ requests for more information.

Continue reading at Washington Free Beacon.

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WaPo: In Ohio, Obama blasts GOP: ‘They’ve been feeding their base all kinds of crazy for years’

By Juliet Eilperin

Speaking at the Ohio Democrats’ annual dinner in Columbus on Thursday night, President Obama blasted Republicans for nurturing the sort of extreme thinking that led to Donald Trump’s political rise.

While Obama aimed a few of his swipes at Trump, he directed most of his criticism toward GOP officials who have only recently disavowed their party’s presidential nominee. Frequently, he referred indirectly to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is running for reelection and holds a significant lead over former governor Ted Strickland (D).

“But so the problem is not that all Republicans think the way this guy does. The problem is, is that they’ve been riding this tiger for a long time,” Obama said, referring to those who questioned whether he was born in the United States, those who called him “the antichrist” and subscribers to other conspiracy theories. “They’ve been feeding their base all kinds of crazy for years, primarily for political expedience.”

“People like Ted’s opponent, they just stood by while this happened,” Obama said, referring to Portman. “And Donald Trump, as he’s prone to do, he didn’t build the building himself, but he just slapped his name on it and took credit for it.”

“This is in the swamp of crazy that has been fed over and over and over and over again,” Obama said to applause. “So the point is, if your only agenda is either negative — negative is a euphemism, crazy — based on lies, based on hoaxes, this is the nominee you get. You make him possible.”

Although Portman withdrew his endorsement for Trump after a 2005 videotape surfaced last week in which Trump made crude remarks about sexually assaulting women, Obama argued that he has more respect for those who actually supported the New York real estate mogul “than the people who knew better and stood silently by because it was politically expedient.”

“They know better, a lot of these folks who ran, and they didn’t say anything,” Obama said. “And so they don’t get credit for, at the very last minute, when finally the guy they nominated and they endorsed and they supported is caught on tape saying things that no decent person would even think, much less say, much less brag about, much less laugh about or joke about, much less act on. You can’t wait until that finally happens and then say, ‘That’s too much, that’s enough,’ and think that somehow you are showing any kind of leadership and deserve to be elected to the United States Senate. You don’t get points for that.”

At times his remarks appeared aimed at moderate Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, suggesting that elected Republican officials had lost their moral compass.

“And if your only organizing principle has been to block progress and block what we’ve tried to do to help the American people every step of the way, so you’re not even consistent anymore — you claim the mantle of the party of family values, and this is the guy you nominate? And stand by, and endorse, and campaign with until, finally, at the 11th hour you withdraw your nomination? You don’t get credit for that?” he said. “You’re the party that is tough on foreign policy and opposes Russia–and then you nominate this guy, whose role model is Vladimir Putin, the former head of the KGB? I’m sorry, what happened?”

Continue reading, Washington Post.

 

 

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Politico: Obama raises refugee goal to 110,000, infuriating GOP

Syrian refugees

By and

President Barack Obama plans to admit 110,000 refugees from around the world to the United States over the next year — a figure that is 10,000 above his original goal and which immediately set off howls of protest from some Republicans.

The 110,000 figure is expected to include a substantial number of Syrian refugees, whose admission to the U.S. has sparked debate in the presidential race. Republican nominee Donald Trump wants to bar Syrian refugees completely, alleging that terrorists could be hiding among them.

At the same time, the 110,000 figure, which covers the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, is likely to disappoint many supporters of the refugee program, who have been urging the administration to take in as many as 200,000 displaced people from around the world.

A senior Obama administration official confirmed late Tuesday that Secretary of State John Kerry had briefed Congress earlier in the day about the administration’s new plan. He noted that Kerry had said several months ago that the U.S. wanted to admit at least 100,000 refugees worldwide but that it would take more if it could.

The decision to go with 110,000 “is consistent with our belief that all countries should do more to help the world’s most vulnerable people,” the official said.

In an 82-page report to Congress obtained by POLITICO, the Obama administration said it will try to admit a “significantly higher” number of refugees from Syria during the next fiscal year than the 10,000 goal it set for the fiscal year that ends this month. The administration exceeded the 10,000 figure a month ahead of schedule.

“While the vast majority of Syrians would prefer to return home when the conflict ends, it is clear that some remain extremely vulnerable in their countries of asylum and would benefit from resettlement,” states the report, which was prepared by the departments of State, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.

Some Republican lawmakers issued statements denouncing the plan on national security and other grounds.

“We must remain compassionate toward refugees, but we also need to make sure that we use common sense,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia. “Unfortunately, President Obama unilaterally increases the number of refugees resettled in the United States each year and gives little thought as to how it will impact local communities.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama and a top adviser to Trump, called Obama’s plan “reckless and extreme.”

Continue reading, Politico.

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