The right-wing apparently thinks it has found a new Benghazi in a Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. paid Iran $400 million in cash at the same time that four U.S. prisoners were released in January. Naturally, that means knees are jerking all over Fox News.

As Media Matters noted, Donald Trump called it a scandal and Fox News and Rush Limbaugh fell in line right behind him. But Media Matters also pointed out that the $400 million payment had been announced in January, was a settlement of a long-standing claim Iran had against the U.S. and was less than the country had sought.

But facts didn’t stop Fox host Trish Regan, from egging on “I want war with Iran” John Bolton to go on a Trump-friendly tirade.

Regan asked, “Do you see it as ransom?”

“Of course it was,” Bolton said. “This deal, together with the nuclear deal, was all part of the same package, and the White House spokesman all but admitted it in the passage you just broadcast, saying they made a strategic decision to try and wrap everything up together and they did.”

That's hardly proof of a quid pro quo or that the money was only paid because of the prisoners but Regan didn't seem to think that worth mentioning.

Instead, Regan asked, “How does $400 million go missing, effectively?” She added, incriminatingly, “If you were a business and suddenly $400 million went missing, there would be a whole lot of questions asked. I don’t know how something like this gets done, Ambassador, in secret.”

Both she and Bolton seemed to forget that Fox reporter James Rosen had just explained that the U.S. had frozen the money after the hostages were seized in the 1970s. In other words, it was money the U.S. was holding.

Bolton nevertheless called the payment an “embarrassment” and an “act of appeasement.”

Regan finally got around to pointing out that the Obama administration said the money was owed to Iran, but she framed it as opinion. Apparently, Regan didn't think she owed the viewers any obligation to ferret out truth. Maybe she was afraid of finding out the Obama administration was telling the truth.

Yet, when Bolton responded by saying, “That is nonsense!” Regan chuckled appreciatively.

Still absolving herself of any responsibility as an arbiter of truth, Regan played a clip of White House spokesman Josh Earnest reiterating the point that the money was owed to Iran. But she sat silently as Bolton sneered, “He’s a fool.”

Bolton went on to say that the claim was old and “There was no rush to resolve it.”

But in fact, there was a reason to resolve the claim, as The Wall Street Journal reported, via Media Matters:

Meanwhile, U.S. officials have said they were certain Washington was going to lose the arbitration in The Hague, where Iran was seeking more than $10 billion, and described the settlement as a bargain for taxpayers.

Somehow Bolton missed that point. She did think to add on to Bolton’s attack, however. She closed the segment by saying that “the danger” is that “this puts Americans in jeopardy going forward because if a government like Iran knows that we’re willing to pay up to the tune of $400 million, then it’s putting everyone at risk.”

Not surprisingly, she didn’t offer a single fact or piece of evidence to back up that claim.

Watch Regan put her thumb on the scale of this discussion below, from the August 3 Your World.