Government Threatened Foley Family over Ransom, Mother of Slain Journalist Says

DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Obama administration officials repeatedly threatened the family of murdered journalist James Foley that they might face criminal charges for supporting terrorism if they paid ransom to the ISIS killers who ultimately beheaded their son, his mother and brother said this week.

“We were told that several times and we took it as a threat and it was appalling,” Foley’s mother Diane told ABC News in an interview.

She said the warnings over the summer came primarily from a highly decorated military officer serving on the White House’s National Security Council staff, which five outraged current and former officials with direct knowledge of the Foley case also recounted to ABC News in recent weeks.

“Three times he intimidated us with that message. We were horrified he would say that. He just told us we would be prosecuted. We knew we had to save our son, we had to try,” Diane Foley said.

“It was an utterly idiotic thing to do that came across as if he had the compassion of an anvil,” said a former official who has advised the family.

“He had no business speaking about legal issues he was unqualified to discuss,” a current official said of the military officer at the NSC, who has no background in the law.

Foley’s brother Michael said in an interview that he was directly threatened with possible prosecution for violating anti-terrorism laws by a State Department official, but insisted that he remained defiant in calling the government’s bluff. No relatives of American hostages have ever been indicted for trying to free a loved one from captivity, Foley said he informed the official.

The Foley family adviser said the threats were made up until a few days prior to the veteran war correspondent’s murder by ISIS shown in the shocking Aug. 19 video. Two weeks later, another captured U.S. journalist, Steven Sotloff, was shown being similarly beheaded by ISIS in a video, which the killers said was because President Obama has bombed the group inside Iraq.

An NSC spokeswoman admitted that the Foley family was informed of U.S. laws banning terrorism financing but denied the family was told they could face charges if they made a ransom payment.

“Without getting into the details of our private discussions with families, the law is clear that ransom payments to designated individuals or entities, such as ISIL [ISIS], are prohibited. It is also a matter of longstanding policy that the U.S. does not grant concessions to hostage takers. Doing so would only put more Americans at risk of being taken captive. That is what we convey publicly and what we convey privately,” NSC spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement on Thursday.

The spokeswoman also asked ABC News to withhold the military officer’s name for fear his personal security could be compromised by those who might wrongly blame U.S. officials for Foley’s slaughter at the hands of ISIS militants who may never have considered sparing him for any price.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf did not delve into specifics in the Foley case, but said that some federal agencies might advise the family of an American being held hostage “that it would help the hostage to not have to media attention paid to their case.”

“This department never would nor would we ever intend to do anything that we could consider threatening,” Harf said.

Diane Foley said she was furious at the official’s perceived threats and that she and her husband John were concerned that any donors to their ransom collection drive might be thrown in prison for funding terrorism.

“I fear for the remaining American hostages’ families, who have been intimidated in a similar way,” she told ABC News. “It definitely interfered with our efforts to bring Jim home.”

“We did not want any of our donors to be prosecuted; we weren’t concerned about ourselves,” she added.

Foley did not disclose how much her family had raised before his high-profile public execution but she and a surviving son, Michael said that the administration’s intimidation tactics succeeded.

“It slowed my parents down quite a bit. They didn’t want to do anything that could get them in trouble. It slowed them down for months in raising money. Who knows what might have happened?” Michael Foley wonders.

The family launched the James W. Foley Legacy Fund this week, which in large part is intended to help other hostages’ loved ones navigate the frustrating currents they encountered both with the terrorists and with their own government.

Two American and several British hostages remain in ISIS captivity.

Asked whether she had believed ISIS would accept a ransom payment and free their son, as they had many European hostages liberated for between $2-3 million each, Diane Foley replied, “I do, maybe — I mean, who knows?”

“ISIS is a very brutal group. They may have already decided, that Jim and the others were Americans and they were going to kill him,” Foley said.

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