Okay, let's play the context game:
President Donald Trump likes to tell a story about the U.S. paying out billions of dollars to Iran as part of the multinational deal freezing its nuclear program and easing sanctions against it. What he doesn't say is that most of that money was Iran's to begin with. The rest relates to an old debt the U.S. had with Iran. ...
There was no $150 billion payout from the U.S. treasury. The money he refers to represents Iranian assets held abroad that were frozen until the deal was reached and Tehran was allowed to access its funds.
The payout of about $1.8 billion is a separate matter. That dates to the 1970s, when Iran paid the U.S. $400 million for military equipment that was never delivered because the government was overthrown and diplomatic relations ruptured.
So the fact checker agrees that pallets of cash were sent. Even if that payment was legitimate, none of it had to be sent in cash form easily distributed for terrorist uses.
As for the rest of the money involved, as long as we are in fact checking mode, while it is true that the cash was originally Iran's, it is not true that we had to give it to Iran in 2015.
The fact is we grabbed that cash in the aftermath of the Iran revolution that began with Iran's thugs seizing American diplomats and holding them hostage for a year and a half.
The fact is that badly needed cash was leverage to get better behavior by Iran and to be a source of compensation for any American suing Iran for actions of the revolutionary government.
The fact is, there was no requirement that America give Iran the money at that time and under those terms. Why not, for example send the cash in electronic form as is normal? Why not dole out the $150 billion over the life of the Iran deal as Iran meets benchmarks of compliance?
In the context of the deal, that money was an up-front reward to Iran and a de facto ransom to get Americans that Iran held released. Advantage: Trump.
The deal is bad. Could it be fixed? Maybe. But I'd cancel the deal and start over rather than risk that talks to "fix" the existing deal might degenerate into talks to "save" the deal, which would leave Iran in position to freely pursue nuclear weapons as the current deal provides.
As long as we are checking facts.
