Obama Admin ‘Actively Interfered’ with Key FBI Arrests: Whistleblowers
During President Barack Obama's administration, the State Department allegedly obstructed the FBI’s efforts to arrest individuals suspected of financially aiding Iran’s nuclear weapons program, according to whistleblower accounts.
The allegations came to light on Wednesday when Republican Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin released a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken the previous day.
Grassley and Johnson criticized Blinken, stating that then-Secretary of State John Kerry, based on whistleblower disclosures, “actively interfered” with the FBI when the bureau was “executing arrest warrants on individuals in the U.S.”
The individuals targeted were suspected of “illegally supporting Iranian efforts, including financial efforts, to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and its ballistic missile program,” according to the letter.
The senators also accused then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and then-FBI Director James Comey of failing to adequately counter Kerry’s “obstructive efforts against law enforcement.”
Due to this interference, the FBI “lost the opportunity to arrest the main subject” in six instances of State Department obstruction, the senators claimed.
Grassley and Johnson included partially redacted FBI emails in their letter, highlighting one email that indicated a suspect who had evaded arrest was on the terrorism watch list. Another suspect managed to flee to Iran, according to the letter.
One suspect was supposed to be arrested “mid-flight,” but the State Department blocked the arrest, resulting in the individual being merely refused entry into the U.S., the letter noted.
Two suspects were arrested only after the Trump administration’s State Department reversed the Obama administration’s block on their arrests, Grassley and Johnson stated.
All these incidents occurred while the Obama administration was negotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. The U.S. withdrew from the deal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, who criticized it as “the worst deal in history.”
“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,” Grassley and Johnson stated.
“The records also show that DOJ and FBI leadership apparently allowed it to happen until the Trump administration altered course,” the senators added.
They requested that the State Department provide records with keywords linked to Iran and the nuclear deal from Blinken as well as former officials such as Kerry, William J. Burns, and Wendy Sherman.