AG Lynch refuses to answer questions about Iran ransom payment - Rick Moran

by Rick Moran

This is politics pure and simple as the administration tries to avoid the embarrassment of information coming to light about our humiliation at the hands of Iran.

Congress wants to know what role Attorney General Loretta Lynch played in the transfer of $1.7 billion to Iran in exchange for our hostages but the AG, in effect, is taking the fifth.

Senator Marco Rubio and Rep. Mike Pompeo sent a series of questions to Lynch that a spokeman summarily dismissed, saying pretty much that it was none of Congress's business.

Washington Free Beacon:

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.

Information about the ransom deal is unclassified, but in order to view, lawmakers must treat the details as if they were nuclear secrets:

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.”

Get that? Unclassified information is "not appropriate for public release." Perhaps the administration thinks releasing details of the transaction will outrage our allies - not to mention the American people, who continue to be kept in the dark about the administration's negotiations with a terrorist state to free our hostages.

Since the details are not classified, the AG cannot claim a national security exemption. This is politics pure and simple as the administration tries to avoid the embarrassment of information coming to light about our humiliation at the hands of Iran.

Rick Moran

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/10/ag_lynch_refuses_to_answer_questions_about_iran_ransom_payment.html

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