Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in on the fact that former marine Paul Whelan remains behind bars in a Russian prison while basketball player Brittney Griner has been freed.
Griner was released by Russian authorities on Dec. 8 in a prisoner swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.
“She’s safe. She’s on a plane. She’s on her way home,” President Joe Biden told reporters at a White House briefing.
But while Griner has regained her freedom, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, whose release the Biden administration tried to secure as part of the prisoner swap but failed, remains behind bars.
Musk weighed in on Whelan’s continued imprisonment in Russia while responding to a social media post that was critical of the Biden administration for failing to get the ex-Marine released.
Biden has faced criticism for the chaotic U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan in which billions of dollars in military equipment were left behind to then fell into Taliban hands and in which 13 U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bomb attack.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said of the prisoner swap: “Leaving Paul Whelan behind for this is unconscionable.”
Griner Released
The 32-year-old Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Mercury team.She had been playing in Russia during the league’s offseason and was arrested in February after customs officials found in her possession vaping cartridges with cannabis oil, a substance that in Russia is illegal.
Griner pleaded guilty while explaining that she had been prescribed cannabis for chronic pain and had packed the substance in her luggage inadvertently.
She was sentenced to nine years in prison, and after her appeal was denied, Griner began serving time at a penal colony in Mordovia in November, her lawyers told media outlets.
Griner’s release came in exchange for Bout, a 55-year-old arms dealer who was serving a 25-year sentence. Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” was working to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including 800 surface-to-air missiles and 30,000 AK-47s, to Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, a designated foreign terrorist group based in Colombia, to kill Americans there, according to prosecutors.
Biden said at the White House briefing that Griner’s release was “a day we have worked toward for a long time.”
“We never stopped pushing for her release. It took painstaking and intense negotiations, and I want to thank all the hardworking public servants across my administration who worked tirelessly to secure her release,” Biden added.
A White House official said Thursday that the Biden administration tried to secure Whelan’s release along with Griner’s but that the Russian government was treating Whelan’s case differently.
‘Not Forgotten’
Biden said during the briefing that his administration has “not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for years.”The president added that the Russian government “is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s.”
“I want to be very clear: This was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home. It was a choice between bringing home one particular American—Brittney Griner—or bringing home none,” the official said.
“We will never relent until we bring Paul home, too, along with other Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained globally,” the official added.
In the phone call to CNN, Whelan insisted he’s innocent and is baffled as to why he remains incarcerated.
“I was arrested for a crime that never occurred,” he told the outlet. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”
Whelan added that “my bags are packed. I’m ready to go home. I just need an airplane to come and get me.”
Family Reaction
Whelan’s brother, David, said in a statement that the Biden administration’s failure to secure the ex-Marine’s release is a “disappointment” to the family and a “catastrophe” for Paul.At the same time, David Whelan said it was the “right decision” to secure Griner’s release.
“The Biden administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen,” he said.
U.S. officials have said they did not see an immediate path to bringing about Whelan’s release, saying Russia has treated his case differently because of the “sham espionage” charges against him.
Still, they said they believe communication channels with the Russians remain open for negotiations for his freedom.
“We didn’t want to lose the opportunity today to secure the release of one of them,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Other U.S. citizens imprisoned in Russia include Marc Fogel, who, like Griner, was caught with cannabis in his luggage. Trevor Reed, another American, was swapped for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko earlier this year.
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