Posted by Tina
Have you ever heard of The Judgement Fund? I hadn’t. It’s run by a special bureaucratic department of the Treasury Department for the purpose of paying “court judgments and Justice Department compromise settlements of actual or imminent lawsuits against the government.”:
The Judgment Fund is a permanent, indefinite appropriation available to pay judicially and administratively ordered monetary awards against the United States. The Judgment Fund is also available to pay amounts owed under compromise agreements negotiated by the U.S. Department of Justice in settlement of claims arising under actual or imminent litigation, if a judgment on the merits would be payable from the Judgment Fund. The statutory authority for the Judgment Fund is 31 U.S.C. 1304.
Payments made to Iran as part of the Iran Deal have been made through this fund. The New York Sun discovered that 13 payments of “exactly $99,999,999.99” were made to Iran by the State Department through this fund thus avoiding legislative appropriation. I assume the tax payer funds that are used are accounted for in the “other” catagory in budget reports. The Sun reports:
The Judgment Fund has long been a controversial vehicle for federal agencies to detour past one of the most pointed prohibitions in the Constitution: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
The Judgment Fund, according to a Treasury Department Web site, is “a permanent, indefinite appropriation” used to pay monetary awards against U.S. government agencies in cases “where funds are not legally available to pay the award from the agency’s own appropriations.”
In March, in letters responding to questions about the Iran settlement sent weeks earlier by Representatives Edward Royce and Mike Pompeo, the State Department confirmed that the $1.3 billion “interest” portion of the Iran settlement had been paid out of the Judgment Fund. But State gave no information on the logistics.
The 13 payments that may explain what happened are found in an online database maintained by the Judgment Fund. A search for “Iran” since the beginning of this year turns up nothing. But a search for claims in which the defendant is the State Department turns up 13 payments for $99,999,999.99.
They were all made on the same day, all sharing the same file and control reference numbers, all certified by the U.S. Attorney General, but each assigned a different identification number. They add up to $1,299,999,999.87, or 13 cents less than the $1.3 billion Messrs. Clinton and Kerry announced in January.
Neither the State Department nor the Treasury were willing to answer questions about the date or the method for dispersing this money. The database does note that payments “were made within days of the announcement of the Iran settlement.”
The Obama administration is a rogue administration. Obama recently admitted the $400 million cash shipment to Iran was a ransom payment in that the transfer was contingent on the release of the prisoners. Obama’s promises to be “the most transparent” administration in our history, see documents here, can be seen now as nothing but a sick joke played on the American people for the purpose of undermining our laws and process, rewarding our enemies, and fundamentally transforming America. More and more it looks like the goal of this administration was to bring America to her knees.
I realize that any administration has good reasons to maintain secrecy. Those reasons should always involve national security. I also realize that we must have a mechanism for making disperements in legal settlements. I don’t see how this secret deal with Iran, that ended in payments to them and also administered in secret bypassing the legislative process, is appropriate. I urge you to read the articles linked above to assist you in making a wise choice at the voting booth in November.
Clue: There’s no indication that a Hillary administration would be any more transparent or respect the Constitutional process any more than the one in which she has played a significant, secretive, part.