State Department spokesman John Kirby talked to FOX News Friday morning about his press conference yesterday where he acknowledged the $400 million transferred to Iran corresponded with the release of hostages held by the Islamic republic. However, this morning Kirby said the release of the hostages and the release of the $400 million were two separate processes.



Transcript, via FOX News Channel:





KIRBY: That doesn’t change the facts and the facts are that these two processes converge roughly in a 24-hour period, we took advantage of the momentum and it would’ve been foolish and you and I would be having a much different conversation if we had gone ahead and released the money and then Iran reneged on the deal. There’s not a lot of trust between the United States and Iran, they were already playing games in the 48 hours up to the release of the hostages including not being able to find Jason Rezaian’s wife. So look, we didn’t trust them and we did the safe, proven thing to get our people out – that was the top priority...



U.S. policy is not to pay ransom for hostages, that’s not gonna change we believe that that’s the proven course going forward so you don’t encourage additional hostage taken and encourage other people to put American citizens at risk...