The parents of Trevor Reed, a former US marine detained in Russia since 2019, secured a meeting with President Joe Biden on Wednesday, after demonstrating outside the White House for hours in the hopes of getting some face time with the US president.
Paula and Joey Reed have been running an aggressive public campaign in recent months, appearing on shows from across the political spectrum, from MSNBC to Newsmax, in an effort to pressure the Biden administration to do more to bring their 30-year-old son back to the US.
Mr Biden promised during the group’s more than 30-minute meeting, CNN reported, that he would “continue to work to secure” their son’s release.
The 30-year-old Texas man is serving out a nine-year-jail sentence after being found guilty in a Russian court of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk in Moscow.
The Reed family has denied the charges, while top political figures in Washington, such as John Sullivan, the US ambassador to Russia, has described the evidence being used against the former marine as “flimsy and preposterous”.
This is the second time the Reeds have had an opportunity to plead their son’s case to the president’s ear directly. Earlier in the month, while visiting Fort Worth, Texas, the president called the family and discussed their case over the phone, though the Reeds had hoped he’d stop by their own home, only a short ride away from where he was visiting.
During their meeting on Wednesday, the parents told CNN that the president listened to their case, again, “intently” and that they “have asked for more”, Joey Reed said.
His wife, Paula, added we were able to “say what we wanted to say”.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a statement after the meeting, echoing much of what the parents had to say on the airwaves later that day.
“The President reiterated his commitment to continue to work to secure the release of Trevor, Paul Whelan, and other Americans wrongfully held in Russia and elsewhere, and to provide all possible assistance until they and others are free and returned home to their families who are advocating so passionately for their release,” Ms Psaki said in a statement.
Mr Reed is one of a few Americans who remain trapped in Russia under what critics call trumped-up charges, including the most recent case of Brittney Griner, the WNBA player who is being held in custody after getting arrested in February when Russian customs claim they found cannabis oil cartridges for a vape pen in her luggage.
Last June, President Biden met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to raise the issue of Mr Reed’s case, along with Paul Whelan, another former US marine detained in the country, and Michael Calvey, a business executive who was charged with embezzlement.
Among some of the concerns raised by Mr Reed’s parents during their recent media engagements has been an increasing anxiety around the deteriorating health condition of their son.
In December, the family reported that Trevor had been exposed to a cellmate who was positive for tuberculosis. They claimed that their son did not receive proper testing, despite his health beginning to visibly worsen.
He spent 10 days in hospital and was returned to his prison cell last week, they said. His Mordovian lawyer, the region where he’s being held in Russia, spoke with the former marine and confirmed that, as of Tuesday, he had begun a hunger strike “to protest being sent back to solitary while injured and having TB”, the parents said in a statement.
“Soon after he returned, Trevor asked authorities at the IK-12 gulag to return to the hospital. Instead, authorities returned him to solitary confinement,” they added.
With this week’s hunger strike, it will be the second time that the marine has staged this kind of protest.
Last year, he was protesting rights abuses, but was forced to call it off nearly a week later after having lost too much weight.
