Between 2013 and 2017, in his role as secretary of state, John Kerry stopped the Justice Department and the FBI from arresting Iranian agents who were on U.S. soil and financially boosting Iran's nuclear program, according to a series of emails revealed by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).
“Unclassified and legally protected whistleblower disclosures provided to our offices show that while the Obama/Biden administration publicly committed to ‘prevent[ing] Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons by raising the cost of Iran’s defiance of the international community,’ 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,” Republicans Grassley and Johnson wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“The records show that Justice Department and FBI leadership, to include then-Attorney General Lynch and then-FBI Director Comey, failed to take the necessary steps to stop Kerry’s obstructive efforts against law enforcement,” the senators added in the letter, which was obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.
According to the senators' conclusion, the emails make it clear that former Secretary Kerry prevented the DOJ and the FBI from proceeding with the arrests so as not to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
FBI WBs came to me & Sen Johnson w emails showing fmr Scty of State John Kerry blocked MULTIPLE FBI attempts 2 arrest dangerous Iranian individuals during Iran nuclear deal negotiations Obama/Biden State Dept put politics over natl security We made those records public 2day
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) May 22, 2024
FBI uncomfortable with block by Kerry and Obama
In several emails dated 2015, all attached to the letter, two FBI agents can be seen discussing that the agency would have to wait until the culmination of negotiations between Iran and the Obama administration to arrest Iranian actors operating illegally within the United States.
“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 US and Iran negotiations resolve themselves,” wrote one of the agents. “We will continue to argue for aggressive action, however we will probably lose.”
Likewise, another unclassified FBI email, dated Aug. 25, 2017, detailed at least eight cases related to the Iran Nuclear Deal in which “FBI/DOJ/USG could have moved forward with these cases but the State Department chose to block them.”
Records show that in at least six of those eight cases, the FBI missed an opportunity to catch the main suspect.
Additionally, one of the subjects identified by the FBI was "on the Terrorism Watch List" and another had to return to Iran immediately upon arrival in the United States.
Grassley and Johnson also noted that these DOJ restrictions were only carried out during the Obama administration, since once former President Donald Trump came to power, two of the targets were arrested.
“These warnings about the failure to arrest known Iranians subject to arrest warrants occurred as early as 2015 and was allegedly done due to political reason,” the senators said.
The interference of Obama's DOJ at that time generated internal conflicts in the FBI, with various agents trying to circumvent Kerry's blockade to proceed with the arrests, the senators explained.
Likewise, the letter detailed that Kerry's deep interference in the FBI investigations became such a problem that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch had to meet with Obama's secretary of state to discuss his interference in the arrests.
For these reasons, Grassley and Johnson are demanding records of Kerry's email files from now-CIA Director Bill Burns; from Wendy Sherman and the current Secretary of State Antony Blinken before June 4.
This interference against the FBI by Obama's DOJ is reminiscent of the block that The Democratic administration imposed on the DEA and the famous “Project Cassandra,” a massive operation where the anti-narcotics agency was preparing to deal a major blow to the Latin American operations of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, a close ally of the Iranian regime.
However, despite the fact that the DEA had been investigating Hezbollah's complex criminal business networks for years, the Obama administration torpedoed the DEA's efforts so that its operation did not jeopardize the Iran Nuclear Agreement, as revealed by Politico in 2017.
