On Thursday, the State Department finally admitted to what was clear to anyone paying attention: the U.S. forked over $400M to Iran only after our hostages were released. President Obama insisted the suspiciously-timed payment was not part of a ransom agreement.

State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked at a press briefing: “In basic English, you’re saying you wouldn’t give them $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?”

“That’s correct,” he replied.

However on August 4, President Obama assured the media at a press conference: "We do not pay ransom. We didn’t here, and we won’t in the future.”

He went on to explain that families “know we have a policy that we don’t pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way, and announce it to the world, even as we’re looking in the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage, and saying to them we don’t pay ransom, defies logic,” Obama added.

Not only did Obama claim the $400M was not a ransom payment, he insisted the transaction was not secret and was "old news."

"It’s been interesting to watch this story surface. Some of you may recall, we announced these payments in January. Many months ago. There wasn’t a secret. We announced them to all of you. [Press Secretary Josh Earnest] did a briefing on them. This wasn’t some nefarious deal,” the president said.

“It wasn’t a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it and it is interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again.”

The original story from the White House was that the money was part of a decades old payment for weapons back in the 1970's. The money was delivered to Iran in cash via an unmarked cargo plane.

Kirby still insisted the payment was not a ransom at yesterday's press conference. “The two negotiations were separate,” he said of the cash payment and the release of our hostages.