AP FACT CHECK: Trump's Iranian propaganda video a concoction
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Donald Trump is dramatically describing a video that he says shows the U.S. paying off Iran as part of a deal to release U.S. sailors from Iranian custody.
The U.S. indeed paid that money to Tehran in January, in a publicly announced settlement of a decades-old international arbitration case dating back to when Iranians paid Washington for military equipment they never received.
The U.S. government denies the payment was ransom for the release of Americans, which may or may not be true.
Surely a concoction, and one that recalls his unsupported contention early in the campaign that he saw video of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks.
Trump contended: When they took our sailors, they forced them to their knees and the only reason we got them back is that we hadn't paid the money yet.
It's a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they're gonna be shot because they're shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.
The Geneva setting does not fit with Trump's suggestion that this unfolded in Iran, where "the paparazzi doesn't do so well."
[...] The Wall Street Journal, which this week reported previously unknown details of the payment, said the cash was flown to Tehran.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures