How rotten did the appeasement of Iran get during the era of the Most Equal Comrade?

This rotten:

n selling the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran to Congress, the Obama administration assured lawmakers that Tehran would not have access to the U.S. financial system. But in 2016, the administration secretly granted Iran a license to do just that, according to a Republican-led Senate report released Wednesday.

The 53-page report by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), chaired by Ohio senator Rob Portman, also reveals the extent of Obama administration efforts to encourage foreign countries to do business with Iran. Its release comes after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the agreement and reimposing nuclear deal-related sanctions on Iran.

The lifting of those sanctions in January 2016 allowed Tehran to tap into its previously frozen assets abroad, including $5.7 billion rials held in an Omani bank, Bank Muscat. Iran wanted to convert those funds to euros, which could be done most efficiently by first converting to U.S. dollars as an “intermediary step.” In an effort to allow Iran to convert its once-frozen rials, the Treasury Department granted a specific license in February 2016 that authorized the Iranian assets to be converted using the U.S. financial system, according to the report.

“A conversion to U.S. dollars on behalf of the [Central Bank of Iran] was prohibited under U.S. sanctions,” the report says. “Other options existed to convert the funds from rials to euros without using the U.S. financial system. But using the U.S. dollar as an intermediary step was the most efficient means, even though U.S. sanctions prohibited it.”

Though Treasury issued the specific Bank Muscat-related license, the process hit a wall when neither of two U.S. banks were willing to act as intermediaries for converting the rials. Both declined despite encouragement from U.S. officials, “primarily due to the unwillingness to take on the legal and compliance risk posed by the complex conversion,” as well as reputational risks, per the report. 

Administration officials had told lawmakers both before and after issuing that license that Iran would not have access to the U.S. financial system. When Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Kirk pressed the Treasury Department over concerns that the administration was working to give Iran dollar access, for example, Treasury responded in June 2016: “The administration has not been and is not planning to grant Iran access to the U.S. financial system.” Materials prepared for congressional testimony by then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew also “suggested he disclose the specific license to Bank Muscat “if pressed.”” He did not end up doing so.

“As the Treasury and State Department worked behind the scenes to help Iran access the dollar, the message to Congress remained the same: The JCPOA did not allow Iran to access the U.S. financial system," the report says. 

It gets more foul still:

Wednesday’s report also detailed efforts by Obama administration officials to drum up business for Iran, including over 200 “roadshows” abroad meant to encourage various countries to engage with Tehran. During one such trip, the report says, one U.S. official signaled that the administration would not stringently punish every sanctions violation.

“For example, during a roadshow in London in March 2015 with representatives from 10 major global financial institutions, the head of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) assured attendees that “95 percent of the time OFAC sees an apparent violation it results in a simple warning letter or no enforcement action,”” the report says. “He explained OFAC would only take action in egregious situations.” 

Foreign financial officials felt "political pressure" to do business with Iran.

Iran. You know, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism.