--- title: President Obama Denies $400 Million Iran Payment Was Ransom description: The president denied speculation that a $400 million payment to Iran was a ransom payment for four American hostages released in January canonical: https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-04T21:44:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:45:29.271Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Denies $400 Million Iran Payment Was a Ransom og:description: "We do not pay ransom for hostages" og:url: https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab18f3e94482f850/6988a0f0524fc0341adf9055/president-barack-obama-isis-army-recruits.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Obama Makes Statement On Mass Shooting In Orlando At White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Denies $400 Million Iran Payment Was a Ransom twitter:description: "We do not pay ransom for hostages" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab18f3e94482f850/6988a0f0524fc0341adf9055/president-barack-obama-isis-army-recruits.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Denies $400 Million Payment to Iran Was a Ransom > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=38a574a3-b7f4-4f24-9ca3-f6bb1ca167fb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Obama Slams Rigging Claim [Watch (HLS stream): Obama Slams Rigging Claim](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uLIW2mNR.m3u8) (4:17)  _Published 2016-08-04. President Obama rebuffed Donald Trump's suggestion that the general election in November would somehow be rigged, joking that he'd never heard of anyone complaining about cheating before the game was even over._ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) and [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) Aug 4, 2016 9:44 PM UTC President Obama rebuffed Donald Trump's suggestion that the general election in November would somehow be rigged, joking that he'd never heard of anyone complaining about cheating before the game was even over. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) and [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) Aug 4, 2016 9:44 PM UTC President Barack Obama attempted to shoot down speculation that the United States had paid a ransom to Iran for the release of four American hostages. Instead, Obama said Thursday that [a $400 million cash transfer](http://time.com/4436518/us-sent-iran-cash-hostages/?iid=sr-link1) sent to Tehran in January only coincidentally aligned with the release of the hostages. “We do not pay ransom for hostages. We’ve got a number of Americans being held around the world and I meet with their families and it’s heartbreaking,” the president said. “But those families know that we have a policy that we don’t pay ransom.” He denied that there was any sort of “nefarious deal,” saying that the payment was not made in secret and that the White House announced the transfer in January. Obama spoke from the Pentagon after a meeting on counter-ISIS efforts with administration officials. Obama said Thursday that the US will continue to aggressively attack the terror network, though he said it seems that ISIS’ diminished presence in Syria is influencing attacks abroad. “None of ISIL’s leaders are safe and we are going to keep going after them,” the president said. Obama says ISIS has not had a major offensive operation in Syria in a full year and that they will “inevitably” be defeated but it will take more that military efforts to stop the group. Earlier in the week the White House vehemently denied that the administration had delivered the payment to Tehran in exchange for American prisoners. Secretary of State John Kerry commented on the situation earlier Thursday, saying that the $400 million transfer was not a ransom payment. “The United States does not pay ransom and does not negotiate ransoms,” Kerry reportedly said. “It is not our policy. This story is not a new story. This was announced by the president of the United States himself at the same time.” ## Transcript [00:00] The decline of Isal in Syria and Iraq appears to be [00:03] causing it shift to tactics that we've seen [00:07] before and even greater emphasis on encouraging [00:10] high profile terrorist attacks including in the United [00:13] States. Isal has not had a major successful operation [00:17] in either Syria or Iraq in a full year. Even ISIS [00:22] leaders know they're gonna keep losing. And their [00:25] message to followers, they're increasingly [00:27] acknowledging that they lose missile and rocket and [00:30] ISIS was right. They will lose them. And we'll keep [00:33] hitting them and pushing them back them and driving [00:35] them out until they do. We do not pay ransom [00:39] for hostages. We've got a number of Americans being [00:43] held all around the world. And I meet with their [00:46] families. And it is heart breaking. And [00:52] we have set up an entire section of inter- agency [00:57] experts who devote all their time to working with these [01:00] families. To get these Americans out. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [01:05] But those families know that we have a policy that we [01:08] don't pay ransom. Precisely because if we did, we [01:11] would start encouraging Americans to be targeted. [01:15] Much in the same way that some countries that do pay [01:17] ransom end up having a lot more of their citizens Being [01:21] taken by various groups. Now the money that we need [01:24] to fight Zika is rapidly running out. The situation is [01:28] getting critical. For instance, without sufficient funding, [01:31] NIH critical trials, clinical trials and the possibilities of a [01:35] vaccine which is well within reach could be delayed. So [01:39] this is not the time for politics. And meanwhile, [01:42] Congress is on a summer recess. A lot of folks talk [01:46] about protecting Americans from threats, well, Zika is [01:49] a serious threat to Americans, especially babies, right [01:53] now. So, once again, I want to urge the American [01:56] people to call their members of Congress and tell them [01:58] to do their job. Deal with this threat, help protect the [02:02] American people from Zika. Of course the elections will [02:06] not be rigged. What does that mean? [ LAUGH ] [02:11] The federal government doesn't run the election [02:14] process. States, and cities, and [02:18] communities all across the country, they are the ones [02:21] who set up the voting systems and the voting booths [02:25] and If Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a [02:29] conspiracy theory, that is being [02:33] propagated across the country. Including [02:39] in places like Texas [ LAUGH ] [02:45] where. Typically it's not democrats that are in charge [02:48] of voting booths. That's ridiculous, that doesn't [02:52] make any sense and I don't think anybody would take [02:54] that seriously. If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points [03:00] on election day and ends up losing then, you know, [03:04] maybe he can raise some questions. The Extraordinary [03:08] rate of incarceration of nonviolent offenders [03:14] has created its own set of problems, that [03:18] are devastating. Entire communities [03:22] have been ravaged, where largely men, but some [03:26] women, Are taken out of those communities. Kids [03:31] are now growing up without parents. It perpetuates a [03:35] cycle of poverty and disorder in their lives. [03:40] It is disproportionately young men [03:44] of color that are being arrested at higher rates [03:50] Charged and convicted at higher rates and imprisoned [03:53] for longer sentences. What we try to do is to screen [03:58] through and find those individuals who have paid [04:05] their debt to society. That have behaved themselves [04:08] and tried to reform themselves while incarcerated, and [04:11] we think have a good chance of being able to use that [04:15] second chance well. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/"},"headline":"President Obama Denies $400 Million Payment to Iran Was a Ransom","datePublished":"2016-08-04T21:44:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-06T09:45:29.271Z","description":"\"We do not pay ransom for hostages\"","url":"https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Iran","Terrorism","ISIS"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab18f3e94482f850/6988a0f0524fc0341adf9055/president-barack-obama-isis-army-recruits.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab18f3e94482f850/6988a0f0524fc0341adf9055/president-barack-obama-isis-army-recruits.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Makes Statement On Mass Shooting In Orlando At White House","caption":"President Barack Obama speaks on June 12, 2016 in Washington.","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/","name":"President Obama Denies $400 Million Payment to Iran Was a Ransom"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Obama Slams Rigging Claim","description":"President Obama rebuffed Donald Trump's suggestion that the general election in November would somehow be rigged, joking that he'd never heard of anyone complaining about cheating before the game was even over.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uLIW2mNR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-08-04T22:45:05.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uLIW2mNR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/","duration":"PT4M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4439884/obama-denies-iran-ransom-payment/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```