I served in the Middle East and watched Iran’s proxy war up close, and this piece lays out why maintaining pressure is vital, how Congress and courts have tried to seize illicit Iranian assets, and why a federal prosecutor’s move against Gold Star families threatens justice and risks sending funds back to Tehran. I argue from a clear Republican viewpoint that sanctions and legal tools are essential to choke off the money that pays for attacks on Americans. I also explain the specific case over billions in Bitcoin and why the Eastern District’s approach is both puzzling and dangerous.
For nearly five decades the Iranian regime has funded proxy groups that have killed American service members and civilians, and they have done it deliberately and with a strategy. That funding fuels regional chaos, gives adversaries like Russia and China advantages, and underwrites technologies used against our forces. We owe it to those who died and to national security to keep economic pressure tight and sanctions enforced.
Sanctions are not just political theater; they are the financial blade that cuts a regime’s ability to buy violence. President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum directing maximum economic pressure on Iran was a necessary move to stop the flow of cash and materiel to terror proxies. When Washington enforces cutting off funds, it tangibly reduces Iran’s capacity to wage asymmetric warfare against Americans.
Congress has provided victims a legal path to go after illicit Iranian assets and to turn frozen or hidden funds over to those who suffered at the hands of Tehran’s proxies. These statutes let victims chase down money, expose laundering networks, and strip away Iran’s commercial cover across the globe. That work is not only righteous; it directly undermines Iran’s ability to finance murder and mayhem.
MIKE PENCE: TRUMP AND OUR INCREDIBLE MILITARY ARE ENDING 47 YEARS OF IRANIAN TERROR sits at the heart of the argument that we must use every tool of statecraft to dismantle Tehran’s murder machine. Victims’ families, including Gold Star relatives, have used those tools to compile extensive expert reports showing roughly $15 billion in Bitcoin tied to Iran’s sanctions-evasion efforts. They are asking courts to turn those assets over to thousands of Americans who have outstanding judgments against Iran.
One especially painful case involves the mother of 1st Lt. Jacob Fritz, who was abducted in 2007, beaten, and executed after being taken from a U.S. compound in Iraq. These families deserve the chance to press their claims and to prevent billions from flowing back into terrorist coffers. The legal work to trace and seize crypto is complicated, but the purpose is simple: justice and deterrence.
ROBERT MAGINNIS: WHY ISLAMABAD TALKS WERE ALWAYS DOOMED TO FAIL reminds us that bad actors use diplomacy and legal gray zones to slice through accountability. So it was shocking when Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, filed public positions that undercut Gold Star families. Nocella contends, without convincing evidence to overturn expert reports, that the Bitcoin belong to a Southeast Asian criminal scheme run by Chen Zhi and should be forfeited to the federal government instead of to victims.
This move is dangerous for two reasons: it risks a court finding that the funds are not Iranian and therefore not subject to sanctions, and if the government then loses a forfeiture case, those funds could drift back toward Iranian allies. The forfeiture complaint itself admits some of the Bitcoin were mined in Iran, yet the claims disconnect the cryptocurrency from Iran in a way that strains credibility. If the result is billions returned to entities with ties to Tehran, that is not justice; it is an outright failure of policy.
ONE MONTH AT WAR WITH IRAN — CAN WASHINGTON DEFINE VICTORY? shows how crucial it is to keep the pressure coherent across branches of government, and the mixed signals from the Eastern District undermine that coherence. The Southern District of New York worked with victims to dismantle an Iran-linked money laundering operation, demonstrating what coordinated law enforcement should look like. The Eastern District’s posture, by contrast, threatens to turn a straight path to relief into a costly detour and a public embarrassment.
Joseph Nocella should stop fighting families who lost loved ones to Iranian terror and let them pursue their well-documented claims. At a time when military and diplomatic pressure has Iran on the ropes, we must not slip by allowing legal missteps to hand billions back to those who bankroll violence. Let the courts award victims what the law and the evidence support, and keep the pressure on Tehran where it belongs.
