“Why did that money sit for 35 years and where did it sit that Obama could just “free” it up for his use with Iran?”
Sadly for the country, Obama was our president and I doubt any act of Congress was involved in the freezing of the assets...so whoever entered the White House was free to unfreeze.
Elections do have consequences, after all.
My understanding is the assets were frozen by executive order by Carter. Therefore Obama could simply reverse it also by executive order.