September 17, 2015: The Nomination Hearing. Shelby Flagged the Deal.

DOCUMENTED

Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

Rayburn House Office Building. Architect of the Capitol / USCapitol Flickr, 13 Dec 2011. U.S. government work.

On September 17, 2015, Senate Banking held a nomination hearing on “Mr. Adam J. Szubin, of the District of Columbia, to be Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes.” The committee hearing page is the official notice. Congress.gov lists the same date: hearings held; printed S.Hrg. 114-129.

Treasury posted his prepared statement the same day (jl0165). He thanked President Obama for the nomination and Secretary Lew for the recommendation. He said he had directed OFAC for nine years and had been acting under secretary for six months. On Iran he wrote that TFI’s campaign “culminated in the diplomatic process that produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” and that even as the government prepared “to suspend our secondary nuclear sanctions if Iran fulfills its commitments under the deal,” other sanctions would continue.

Chairman Richard Shelby’s opening remarks, posted by the committee, said Szubin “has participated in several international negotiations including the President’s recent Iran nuclear deal” and that the nominee who helped assemble the sanctions architecture “may now be tasked by the President with dismantling most of it.” That is Shelby’s characterization, labeled here as a statement by the chairman, not a court finding.

Sources

Senate Banking, “Nomination Hearing,” Sept. 17, 2015. www.banking.senate.gov

Treasury, “Statement by Adam J. Szubin, Nominee…,” Sept. 17, 2015. home.treasury.gov

Sen. Richard Shelby, opening remarks on the Szubin nomination, Sept. 17, 2015. www.banking.senate.gov

Congress.gov, PN371 actions, hearings held Sept. 17, 2015. www.congress.gov

Opinion

The following is commentary by this site. It is not a finding of fact and not a legal conclusion.

Compiler take

Shelby said the quiet part: the man who built the sanctions was being asked to take them down. Szubin’s own statement ties TFI’s Iran campaign to the JCPOA. Read both. Then read the Cotton hold.