I'm watching a lecture by a professor (Roy Casagranda) on U.S. Foreign Policy. He is speaking about the hostage situation in Iran and says that the Iranian government secured the release of the hostages well before the actual release date, Reagan officials got wind of this, and went to Tehran to bribe (with suitcases full of money) to keep the hostages until after the election. I've never heard this before, but is there truth to this?
Lecture is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ar41Lte7ts I believe he mentions it at around 27minutes
This is a version of the "October Surprise" conspiracy theory as most prominently alleged by a former Carter administration official, Gary Sick. A senate investigation on the question of "Was There a Secret Agreement Between the Reagan Campaign and Representatives of the Ayatollah Khomeini to Delay the Re lease of the American Hostages Until After the November 1980 Election?" concluded:
There is not sufficient credible evidence to support this allega tion. The primary sources for this allegation —Brenneke, Ben Menashe, and Lavi—have proven wholly unreliable. Their claims regarding alleged secret meetings are riddled with inconsistencies, and have been contradicted by irrefutable documentary evidence as well as by the testimony of vastly more credible witnesses.829 Not one aspect of Ben-Menashe's story, which alleges a series of meet ings in Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris and Washington in furtherance of an "October Surprise" conspiracy promoted by Israel, was ever corroborated. There is now reliable evidence (from passports, cal endars, credit card receipts, FBI surveillance tapes, etc.) that the men Ben-Menashe claims attended these meetings—including Casey, Bush, Brian, Cyrus Hashemi, and Allen—were definitely not present. Even Jamshid Hashemi, who has testified under oatn that Reagan campaign director William Casey met with Karrubi in Madrid, also stated that Casey's intent was not to delay, but rather to expedite, the release of the hostages.
A joint congressional task force came to the same conclusion, writing:
The credibility of those making the allegations [that Reagan campaign personnel attempted to delay the release of the hostages] has been shown in most every instance to border on non-existent.... In sum, the Task Force found that there is simply no credible evidence of any attempt or proposal to attempt to delay the release of the Americans held hostage in Iran by the 1980 Reagan Presidential campaign.
So, no, there is no credible truth to it, and the professor in question is committing malpractice by lecturing on it without evidence.