Attorney General Loretta Lynch has formally refused to answer questions from Congress about the Obama Administration’s huge cash payments to Iran. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) described Lynch’s response as “unacceptable,” and said she has chosen to “essentially plead the Fifth.”
Rubio and Pompeo sent Lynch a letter on October 7, in which they noted the Treasury Department had “finally informed Congressman Pompeo that it received approval from the Justice Department” for the $1.7 billion in cash paid to Iran.
The intrepid representatives thought the head of the Justice Department might therefore have the answers they were seeking about Iran’s controversial payoff, so they wrote Lynch and asked what was included in the DOJ “approvals,” who issued them, and which Treasury Department officials came to DOJ seeking approval. They also asked if the Justice Department’s General Counsel was involved in the process, and requested copies of any legal opinions rendered by the General Counsel or other Justice Department lawyers.
“Did your Department raise any concerns that the cash payment could be perceived as a ransom?” Rubio and Pompeo asked Lynch. “It has been reported that the same State Department official signed the paperwork for this cash payment, the dropping of charges on 21 Irnaians, and the delisting of two Iranian banks.”
[…]
