Iransom

Yes, it looks like the administration said 'no hostage release, no $400 million' but it wasn't a ransom because the US does not pay ransom.  The story is that the United States owes Iran for monies taken from the previous government of Iran, the one that was overthrown almost 40 years ago.  Yeah, that one.  So, to balance that account, we really needed to pay that.  Yeah, it is nothing but a coincidence that Iran had American hostages.  But since they did coincide, we had leverage to refuse the payment until they released the hostages.  See, it was actually keen diplomacy on our part.

Interestingly, Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton,  and Bush did not feel obligated to repay this debt that had been owed to the Shah of Iran.  Heck, even Obama was in no hurry as he didn't make this overdue payment until 7 years into his presidency.  Maybe those previous presidents were waiting until there was an Iranian government that wasn't the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world (even the Obama Administration State Department has labeled it such).  Not Obama.  No, Iran has a bunch of Americans imprisoned and the Smart Diplomacy of the Obama Administration decided that now was the time to start repaying that 40 year old debt.