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Miami, FL – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees, released the following statement today after the Obama Administration finally admitted its “$400 million cash payment to Iran was contingent on the release of American prisoners”:
 
“This Administration has peddled one outright lie after another as it attempts to defend its disastrous nuclear deal with Iran. As I said two weeks ago when the White House was attacking me and other Republicans for pointing out the obvious fact this was a ransom payment, it’s a sad day when Iranian officials appear to be more honest than our own president. Today, the State Department finally admitted what was obvious to everyone all along. President Obama violated longstanding U.S. policy, overrode the objections of senior Justice Department officials, and delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism in exchange for the release of Americans it was holding hostage.
 
“President Obama stood in front of the American people and acted indignant that anyone would question his official story about how this deal went down. He said, ‘we do not pay ransom. We didn’t here. And we won’t in the future — precisely because if we did, then we would start encouraging Americans to be targeted, much in the same way that some countries that do pay ransom end up having a lot more of their citizens being taken by various groups.’
 
“The American people weren’t fooled by the president’s claim that he did not pay ransom to Iran, and the world’s worst actors aren’t fooled either. The president’s senior advisors saw it as ransom. The Iranians saw it as ransom and said it was a payment for the hostages. Other rogue regimes and terrorists will see it as ransom too, and now Americans around the world are in greater danger, just as the president said they would be.”
 
Rubio announced earlier this month his intention to introduce legislation requiring the president to get this money back from Iran and banning any future ransom payments by the U.S. government to countries or groups that take Americans hostage.