President Joe Biden announced that WNBA star Brittney Griner will return home after a prisoner swap was executed in the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. returned Russia convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, while the Americans received Griner.
While Griner will return home to be with her family in the United States, the same cannot be said for 52-year-old former Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested in 2018 on accusations of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Whelan was not part of the prisoner swap that brought Griner back to U.S. soil.
According to a report from ESPN’s T.J. Quinn, the U.S. had been pushing to bring both Griner and Whelan back together, but Russian officials said it was the one-for-one swap with Griner and Bout, or nothing. The United States decided to make the deal, and Whelan’s family said they understood and that the White House did the right thing.
