The revelation of an Iranian documentary that shows the money on pallets in a warehouse comes hours after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walked back an earlier claim that he had seen tape of the delivery, acknowledging Friday morning that the footage he watched was actually the American captives arriving in Geneva.
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President Barack Obama has pushed back hard against criticism that the USA paid Iran $400 million in ransom to secure the freedom of Americans being held hostage by it.
Trump has made criticism of the USA delivery of $400 million in cash via a plane to Iran – the first installment of $1.7 billion in payments related to a decades-old dispute settled at the same time Iran released four American prisoners – a staple this week on the campaign trail.
“The United States, under President Obama, has not paid a ransom to secure the release of Americans unjustly detained in Iran and we’re not going to pay a ransom”, he said at a daily White House briefing. His administration said the money paid to Iran was not secretive, and was part of a long-standing $1.7 billion dispute over a 1979 arms deal.
Then, on Thursday, a Trump campaign spokesperson told The Washington Post Trump had not actually seen the alleged top secret footage but footage of the prisoner release in Geneva.
He continued the claim even after his campaign said that he was talking about footage that showed the hostages being released and not the money.
“We announced these payments in January”, said Obama in a live-streamed conference, “It wasn’t a secret”. Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said on CNN she misspoke when she blamed Obama for the 2004 death of the Muslim-American soldier, Humayun Khan, during the Iraq war. “Scandal!” Trump said in a Twitter post. The U.S. government denies the payment was ransom for the release of Americans, which may or may not be true.
On Friday morning, Trump answered that question.
Trump also released a Facebook statement linking Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to the $400 million cash payment. That means in order to embarrass us further Iran sent us the tapes, right.
“That was given to us has to be by the Iranians”, he said. “Maybe because it kind of feels like some kind of spy novel or you know crime novel because cash was exchanged”, he said.
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It is rare for the free-wheeling Republican presidential nominee – known for making provocative claims – to admit making a mistake. “The notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way. and say to them that we don’t pay ransom defies logic”.
