The Obama administration stymied multiple FBI arrest operations against individuals on US soil linked to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs – including “known terrorists” – in order to further negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal, two senators said Wednesday.
The startling allegations were made to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) via legally protected whistleblower disclosures.
The senators on Wednesday presented unclassified internal FBI emails obtained from the whistleblowers to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Attorney General Merrick Garland showing the “obstruction” effort in a letter that also demanded more records related to the Obama administration’s nuclear deal negotiations.
“The records provided to our offices show that the Obama/Biden administration’s State Department, under the leadership of John Kerry, actively and persistently interfered with FBI operations pertaining to lawful arrests of known terrorists, members of Iranian proliferation networks, and other criminals providing material support for Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” the senators wrote in their missives.
“The records also show that DOJ and FBI leadership apparently allowed it to happen until the Trump administration altered course,” they added.
The senators uncovered at least eight instances between 2015 and 2016 in which the State Department forced the FBI to stand down on arresting individuals linked to the Iranian regime.
One case involved an Iranian national on the Terrorism Watch List, according to the whistleblower disclosures.
FBI agents appeared to be deeply troubled that they were being asked to stop arrests for political reasons, the emails show.
“We are all beside ourselves on asking the field to stand down on a layup arrest,” an FBI counterintelligence division agent wrote in one July 2015 email to a Los Angeles FBI field office agent.
“However, as it stands right now we all have to sit back and wait until all the US and Iran negotiations resolve themselves,” the counterintelligence division agent added. “We will continue to argue for aggressive action, however, we will probably lose.”
“Our hands are tied.”
The email subject line was “HQ support.”
In another email between FBI counterintelligence agents, from August 2017, one employee of the bureau stated that “there were 8 cases we regularly highlighted as being held up.”
“State Department held up the cases,” the agent asserted. “The FBI/DOJ/USG could have moved forward with the cases but the State Department chose to block them.”
The names of the subjects “lost” because of the State Department’s apparent policy are redacted, but the emails show that at least one subject was able to return to Iran, and the known terrorist was forced out of the country, but not arrested.
“The FBI lost the opportunity to arrest the subject, who is on the Terrorism Watch List, when the subject traveled to the US in July 2015. The State Department blocked our plan to arrest while the subject was mid-flight and the subject was forced to leave the US immediately upon arrival,” a counterintel agent wrote in one email.
Grassley and Johnson slammed FBI and DOJ leadership for failing to halt the arrest holdups.
“Records further show State’s actions, at the direction of former Secretary Kerry, endangered national security, hamstrung the FBI’s law enforcement efforts and counteracted our government’s stance against Iran,” they wrote. “Even so, the FBI and Justice Department, under the leadership of then-Director [James] Comey and then-Attorney General [Loretta] Lynch, failed to put a stop to Kerry’s political interference.”
The senators are asking for records from the email archives of Kerry, CIA Director Bill Burns, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and several other current and former top US government officials by June 4 as part of their investigation into the matter.
The Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, colloquially known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed by former President Barack Obama in 2015. It was scrapped by former President Donald Trump in 2018.
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