Mike Pompeo: “My amendment, in short, prohibits ransom payments to any country. Although the American people consider this to be U.S.…”

“My amendment, in short, prohibits ransom payments to any country. Although the American people consider this to be U.S. policy, given the administration's recent actions, we have to make this prohibition explicit. This amendment will support and strengthen the good work of Chairman Royce on H.R. 5931. Think about this timeline. The U.S. wires $400 million in cash from the Swiss National Bank and then physically transports it to another city to hand off to Iranian officials, all in 3 days, 3 days before Iran releases four American hostages. But it gets worse. Less than a week after this, the U.S. again sends hoards of cash to Iran. We only know this timeline thanks to multiple and persistent inquiries from myself and other Members of Congress. And yet there are so many details that we still don't know. For instance, on April 5, 2016, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest, in response to a reporter's question on whether the Obama administration misled Congress about the Iran deal, stated: ``I don't think there is any evidence to substantiate this claim . . . I think you should take a rather dim view of that suggestion because Congressman Pompeo . . . didn't approve this deal and he certainly didn't favor it.'' But of course my personal view of the JCPOA is irrelevant if the administration stonewalls Congress.…”