Loretta Lynch Pleads The Fifth? Congress Demands Answers About $1.7 Billion Sent To Iran

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has been accused of “pleading the Fifth” by elected officials who are demanding answers about the $1.7 billion cash payment to Iran. The money was airlifted under the cover of night to Iran just prior to American hostages being freed.

The Obama administration claims the United States did not negotiate with terrorists and the $1.7 billion was not a ransom. Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Republican Kansas Representative Mike Pompeo, sent a letter to Loretta Lynch demanding answers to 13 questions about the massive money drop in Iran, the Daily Mail reports.

EDITORIAL: Counting up the carnage https://t.co/6CDHjJdbQd #Justice #LorettaLynch #police pic.twitter.com/MmI7FdcHk1

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) October 26, 2016

The United States Attorney General refused to answer a single question posed in the letter, the Washington Free Beacon reports. Loretta Lynch had Peter Kadzik, the U.S. Assistant Attorney General, draft a response letter to Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo.

“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.”

The letter from Rubio and Pompeo informed Loretta Lynch that the Department of Treasury told Congress they had received all necessary and appropriate “approvals” to release the money to be sent to Iran from the Justice Department. Pompeo and Rubio wanted to know why, how, and when such approvals were granted by Lynch’s federal agency.

In the response to letter to Rubio and Pompeo, Kadzik said DOJ officials were barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment.

“The public release of any portion of these documents, or the information contained therein, is not authorized by the transmittal of these documents or by this communication,” Peter Kadzik wrote in his response letter.

“Please note that these documents contain sensitive information that is not appropriate for public release.”

Mike Pompeo and Marco Rubio found the official response from the Department of Justice “unacceptable.” The elected officials said the U.S. Attorney General had opted 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.”

“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,” a follow-up letter from Rubio and Pompeo to Lynch, said.

“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.”

The response letter from the lawmakers also said, “As the United States’ chief law enforcement officer, it is outrageous that you would essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries. The actions of your department come at a time when Iran continues to hold Americans hostage and unjustly sentence them to prison.”

The details about the Iran cash payment not classified. The documents related to the deal are allegedly being kept under lock and key at a “secure facility” on Capitol Hill. Rubio and Pompeo are not backing down in their effort to get all 13 questions answered by Loretta Lynch. The Senator and the Congressman demanded the U.S. Attorney General provide the information they requested by November 4.

John Podesta & Peter Kadzik, Asst Atty Gen for Leg. Affairs DOJ., were Law School Pals and met during Hillary Benghazi Hearings. BAD Smell? pic.twitter.com/tFswr8jB8p

— J Silvas (@metasnapx) October 29, 2016

Peter Kadzik only began his career at the Department of Justice in 2013, according to a Daily Caller report. He was largely unknown to the American public until his name appeared in a WikiLeaks email dump. It appears Kadzik and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, are old friends.

Podesta and Kadzik went to Georgetown Law School and remained close. One leaked email dated earlier this year reportedly showed the two men talking about celebrating Podesta’s birthday. The day after Hillary Clinton testified before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, John Podesta, Peter Kadzik, lobbyist Vincent Roberti, and some other Washington, D.C. power brokers, all went out to dinner together, according to the emails leaked by Julian Assange. In an email sent from Kadzik to Podesta in May of last year, the DOJ official asked his old friend to get his son a job on the Clinton campaign.

[Featured Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]