A scandal in the Obama Administration?

[knapplc]

The Obama presidency has been defended - especially in contrast to the current and most recent Republican administrations - as being "without scandal."  No Iraq war, no financial meltdown, no... everything Trump is doing.

 

But an investigation into the Iran deal says that maybe "scandal free" isn't the best way to describe 44's presidency.

 

 

Quote

 

Obama-era license aimed to let Iran convert money in dollars

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access — albeit briefly — to the U.S. financial system by sidestepping sanctions kept in place after the 2015 nuclear deal, despite repeatedly telling Congress and the public it had no plans to do so.

 

An investigation by Senate Republicans released Wednesday sheds light on the delicate balance the Obama administration sought to strike after the deal, as it worked to ensure Iran received its promised benefits without playing into the hands of the deal’s opponents. Amid a tense political climate, Iran hawks in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere argued that the United States was giving far too much to Tehran and that the windfall would be used to fund extremism and other troubling Iranian activity.

 

The report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed that under President Barack Obama, the Treasury Department issued a license in February 2016, never previously disclosed, that would have allowed Iran to convert $5.7 billion it held at a bank in Oman from Omani rials into euros by exchanging them first into U.S. dollars. If the Omani bank had allowed the exchange without such a license, it would have violated sanctions that bar Iran from transactions that touch the U.S. financial system.

 

The effort was unsuccessful because American banks — themselves afraid of running afoul of U.S. sanctions — declined to participate. The Obama administration approached two U.S. banks to facilitate the conversion, the report said, but both refused, citing the reputational risk of doing business with or for Iran.

 

“The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the subcommittee’s chairman.

 

Issuing the license was not illegal. Still, it went above and beyond what the Obama administration was required to do under the terms of the nuclear agreement. Under that deal, the U.S. and world powers gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program. Last month, President Donald Trump declared the U.S. was pulling out of what he described as a “disastrous deal.”

 

The license issued to Bank Muscat stood in stark contrast to repeated public statements from the Obama White House, the Treasury and the State Department, all of which denied that the administration was contemplating allowing Iran access to the U.S. financial system.

 

 

We'll see if there's an explanation from the Obama camp.  The bold is not a good look.

[RedDenver]

34 minutes ago, knapplc said:

The Obama presidency has been defended - especially in contrast to the current and most recent Republican administrations - as being "without scandal."  No Iraq war, no financial meltdown, no... everything Trump is doing.

 

But an investigation into the Iran deal says that maybe "scandal free" isn't the best way to describe 44's presidency.

 

 

 

We'll see if there's an explanation from the Obama camp.  The bold is not a good look.

I guess it depends what you consider a "scandal". CIA Director John Brennan spied on the Senate and then lied about it, that seems like a pretty big scandal. Obama's National Intelligence Director James Clapper also lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee about spying on Americans - that seems like a pretty big scandal. Neither has been investigated for or charged with perjury. Obama pardoning everyone committing torture seems like a pretty big scandal. It all depends on how you view those things.

[ZRod]

Fast and Furious. The IRS. There were scandals. They just didn't seem nearly as bad for whatever reason.

 

Honestly, this doesn't sound that bad:

1. The licenses were never used

2. We were trying to help Iran out since we effectively lifted the sanctions, but left them no way to benefit from the relaxation. Whether we should have gone that far for them is debatable I guess.

[Making Chimichangas]

On 6/6/2018 at 11:22 AM, ZRod said:

Fast and Furious. The IRS. There were scandals. They just didn't seem nearly as bad for whatever reason.

 

Because seemingly with every new President, or election cycle, we, collectively as a country and as Americans, sink to a new low.  And by sinking to that new low, the old "low" doesn't seem so bad.

 

George Carlin had it right: America is a full of sh** country.  Our politicians and government are so damn corrupt.  Time to right this ship is coming.