President Joe Biden on Friday will meet personally with the families of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan at the White House, his spokesman said.
This will be the first time he meets them in person. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will meet with Griner’s wife, Cheryl Griner, and Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, to assure them that his administration is committed to securing the release of the loved ones them and that they remain “foremost in their minds. Biden will meet with them separately, the official said.
“One of the things that the President wanted to make clear is, and one of the reasons he’s meeting with the families, is that he wanted to let them know that they remain on their minds and that his team is working on that every day, to make sure that Brittney and Paul will return home safely,” Jean-Pierre said at the White House.
He added: “A family member was already scheduled to be in town and the President wanted to meet with both families on the same day.”
The Associated Press was the first to report on the meeting.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said that working to secure the release of Griner and Whelan, as well as that of Americans held illegally abroad, is a top priority. In late July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US had made a “substantial proposal” to try to secure the release of Griner and Whelan. Sources told CNN the offer included a swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Griner was arrested in February for carrying vapor cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The two-time USA basketball gold medalist pleaded guilty to drug charges and said she accidentally packaged the drugs while in a rush.
He has been sentenced to nine years, along with a fine of about $16,400. Her legal team in Russia appealed the decision.
Whelan has been held by Russia for alleged espionage since 2018.
The Biden administration has offered to trade convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout as part of a possible deal to secure the release of Whelan and Griner, according to people briefed on the matter. Sources told CNN that the plan to swap Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US, for Whelan and Griner received Biden’s support after being discussed earlier this year. Biden’s support for the swap trumps opposition from the Justice Department, which is generally against prisoner trade.
Asked by CNN if there would be any meaningful updates for the families on Friday, Jean-Pierre said there would be no major updates to share.
“While I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to let the families know that the Russians have accepted our offer and we are bringing their loved ones home, that is not what we are seeing in these negotiations right now.” said Jean-Pierre.
He added, “We’d like to say today that we have news about Brittney and Paul coming home today. That is, unfortunately, not where the negotiations are at the moment.”
The president’s special envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens, is currently in Rome for meetings at the Vatican and will not attend the meetings on Friday, according to a US official. Secretary of State Tony Blinken met with the Griner and Whelan families earlier this year.
The State Department did not immediately confirm whether Blinken would attend the meetings on Friday.
This is a spastic story and will be updated.
