U.S. officials familiar with the recent transfer of $400 million in hard currency to Iran withheld details of the exchange from Congress during briefings in classified and unclassified settings, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. “And we are just now finding out damning details about how $400 million, which is less than half of the total, was sent to Iran using foreign aircraft and foreign currencies.”Click for more at The Washington Free Beacon. Lawmakers and others have claimed for months that the payment was part of a “ransom” aimed at securing the release of the hostages. The disclosure threatens to complicate efforts by the administration to downplay new reportsdetailing how U.S. officials used an unmarked aircraft to transfer $400 million in “pallets of cash” to Iran on the same day it freed several U.S. hostages. The White House denies this claim and has said the payment was part of a settlement to resolve decades-old legal disputes with the Islamic Republic.

Source: Fox News August 04, 2016 13:18 UTC