But let's call it "leverage" so it won't sound so bad.
We've already covered Obama's illegal $400 million payment to Iran in January, complete with an extensive discussion of why the payment was a violation of multiple federal laws. But throughout the evolution of this story, the Obama White House insisted the payment was absolutely not a ransom payment for hostages. It was merely the settling of a dispute over an old arms deal from the 1970s, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with the release of hostages.