Conservatives, including Trump and Vance, have long criticized the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal, which involved the U.S. lifting sanctions and sending Iran $1.7 billion to settle decades-old failed contracts between the two countries. That deal was also succeeding, with international observers stating that Iran was adhering to all its nuclear terms. It was Trump who decided to break it in his first term and then start a war with Iran in his second.

Let us remember that it was the Obama administration that rolled out the scorecard of majors. So this kind of utilitarian push is, I believe, bipartisan.

But the Justice Department during the Obama administration began a push to get the case thrown out and succeeded at an appellate court in 2020. In May, the same appellate court also directed a lower court to dismiss an amended complaint.