Whistleblowers are outing former Secretary of State John Kerry, claiming he blocked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice from arresting Iranian terrorists while negotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Kerry played a pivotal role in the deal, which both Iran and United States signed in July 2015. Under its terms, Iran vowed to reduce its nuclear program under international inspection.
In a letter dated last Tuesday and posted to X, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — both Republicans — addressed Secretary of State Antony Blinken, alleging, “then-Secretary of State John Kerry actively interfered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executing arrest warrants on individuals in the U.S. illegally supporting Iranian efforts, including financial efforts, to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and its ballistic missile program.”
Read this letter.
Whistleblowers’ emails reveal John Kerry blocked the FBI and DOJ from arresting Iranian terrorists and agents on U.S. soil in order to protect his Iran deal.
He even ran away from a White House meeting to avoid getting confronted by the Attorney General. pic.twitter.com/MuPUqWOA4n
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) May 22, 2024
In their coverage from Wednesday, National Review highlighted a particularly telling email exchange included in the letter in which two FBI agents indicated their investigation must wait for then-President Barack Obama’s negotiations with Iran to arrest Iranians terrorists inside the United States.
One agent wrote, “We are all beside ourselves on asking the field to stand down on a layup arrest, however as it stands right now we all have to sit back and wait until the U.S. and Iran negotiations resolve themselves.” The agent continued in a defeated tone, saying, “We will continue to argue for aggressive action, however we will probably lose.” The email was dated July 2015, the same month the deal was signed.
The letter continued, saying that despite the signing of the deal, 2016 did not prove any better in the efforts of either the FBI or DOJ in pursuing leads against terrorists. Again, Kerry was to blame.
“An unclassified email from April 28, 2016, stated that, ‘State has been blocking FBI actions where State has had a role for approval or concurrence — visas, lure ops primarily. We have prepared a package of several cases blocked by State and have been working it up the FBI/DOJ/State chain over the past 6 months.’”
Did John Kerry’s work leave the Iranian regime in a better position?
The letter further said that Kerry’s efforts to stop these investigations became such a problem that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch met with Kerry over it. While in one instance, requests for actions against Iranian terrorists were not coming at a “good time”, in another — during a meeting of the Principle’s Committee — Kerry ran out of the room at its conclusion to avoid Lynch.
The arrests of Iranian suspects only saw success during the subsequent administration of President Donald Trump.
There isn’t a manner in which we can sugarcoat Kerry’s actions and his use of the State Department to block these investigations.
He was willing to put American lives at risk inside the United States — during and after negotiations — in order to protect the Iran Nuclear Deal.
The great irony being that the deal is supposed to make the world a safer place in not having Iran build up an arsenal of nuclear weapons. How can Americans feel safe when terrorists from that very country are operating inside the United States?
Could one make the argument that Kerry was simply misguided with good intentions for what became a momentous achievement in foreign policy? Hardly.
In May 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from the deal regarding it, “defective at its core.”
Among his complaints included Iran’s ability after a decade to begin enriching uranium for nuclear weapons and other restrictions being lifted as well. Trump opted for economic sanctions against Iran which he called, “the world’s leading state sponsor of terror.”
Kerry’s efforts were less about the stakes and more about his career.
He would rather see his name attached to Iran Nuclear Deal than see the FBI and DOJ do their jobs in keeping the country safe by arresting terrorists.
