Israel war: Comer vows investigation into Biden’s $6 billion Iran ‘ransom payment’

EXCLUSIVE — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is vowing to investigate the Biden administration’s $6 billion “ransom payment to Iran” after Hamas launched a deadly attack against Israel.

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday raised concerns over the aid, which the United States government agreed to transfer on Sept. 11 to Iran in exchange for U.S. prisoners. Iran-backed Hamas on Saturday targeted Israel, leaving an estimated 1,000 Israelis dead and 3,400 injured. At least 11 Americans have been killed, and Palestinian authorities say 830 people have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes, with the combined death toll topping 1,800.

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“President Biden’s weakness on the world stage has emboldened our enemies around the world,” Comer, who supports freezing the funds, told the Washington Examiner. “From the Biden administration’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal to its $6 billion ransom payment to Iran, President Biden’s policies have led to turmoil in the region. Congress has a duty to hold the Biden administration accountable for its disastrous foreign policies and to conduct oversight of U.S. taxpayer dollars used for foreign aid.”

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said its jets struck over 100 “targets” in Gaza’s Al-Furqan area, while President Joe Biden will have his third call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the war began, according to a U.S. government official. Israel has been in the process of pummeling Gaza with airstrikes, and its ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said Monday the country seeks “to obliterate Hamas terrorist capabilities.”

Increasingly, congressional Republicans have been sounding the alarm over the Biden administration’s release of the Iranian assets before the war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to the scrutiny Sunday and said, “Not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date.” Pressed again, Blinken said, “Iran has unfortunately always used and focused its funds on supporting terrorism, on supporting groups like Hamas, and it’s done that when there have been sanctions.”

But Republicans have argued that the money, which the U.S. government says was for “humanitarian purposes,” is fungible and that the Iranian funds likely allowed the country to free up other resources to use at their wish. Leaders from Hamas and the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah told the Wall Street Journal Sunday that Iran had helped directly plan the Saturday attack against Israel since August, though U.S. and Israeli officials are in the process of reviewing information to understand whether Tehran had direct involvement.

“The House Oversight Committee will continue to examine the foreign policy under this administration and how it jeopardizes our national security,” Comer told the Washington Examiner. “We will also continue our critical oversight of how taxpayer dollars are being used in order to prevent waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.”

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

And adding to the concerns among lawmakers, the House GOP recently launched an investigation into Iran’s influence in the U.S., informing Biden in late September that Iran has access to “restricted U.S. State Department emails or government servers.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry has headed an “Iran Experts Initiative” to push propaganda, and the network has allegedly included Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai, “influential overseas academics,” and ex-aides to U.S. Iran envoy Robert Malley — whose security clearance was suspended in June over possibly mishandling classified materials.

A senior GOP aide close to both the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees said both panels could concurrently investigate the Iranian transfer, which “isn’t all that unusual.

“If there are things uncovered during a Foreign Affairs investigation that require deeper than kind of cursory oversight of an agency, then the Oversight Committee is more equipped to do full-on investigations,” the person told the Washington Examiner. “They’ve worked together pretty friendly together. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got fiefdoms everywhere, and everybody wants to guard their territory.”

The breakout of the Israel-Gaza conflict also comes as Republicans remain without a House speaker, though an internal vote is scheduled to take place on Wednesday that will tee up a floor nomination. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) are racking up endorsements following the unprecedented ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker.

A State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that Biden has “directed his team to do everything we can to support Israel and ensure it has what it needs,” adding, “Our focus remains on the safety of our staff and partners, and the humanitarian needs of those impacted by the violence.”

“In Gaza and the West Bank, U.S. development and humanitarian assistance provides for basic humanitarian needs and seeks to increase stability and improve lives of those most vulnerable,” the agency said, adding in 2022 that the U.S. Agency for International Development provided around $250 million “in humanitarian and economic/development assistance to people living in Gaza and the West Bank.”

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The Biden administration’s Palestinian aid has also come under scrutiny from House Republicans, including Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who on Monday called for it to be halted. The Trump administration cut Gaza funding in the past, and the State Department in 2021 privately expressed concern that giving money to the Palestinian Authority, which controls Gaza, leads to a “high risk” of Hamas deriving “indirect, unintentional benefit,” according to documents obtained by the watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust.

Comer’s comments on oversight come after his panel in September hosted a hearing “examining the Biden administration’s failures on Iran.” The hearing focused on the $6 billion, and the panel said it showed “the Biden administration’s feeble negotiating ability” and gave Iran an incentive to take further hostages.