Posted on 12/09/2022 7:07:59 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
Thursday, FNC’s Tucker Carlson was critical of the prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russian governments that gave the United States Brittney Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Carlson suggested Griner was the beneficiary because Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in Russia, was a Trump voter.
“So, at this point, we can assume the obvious,” Carlson said. “The Biden administration chose Brittney Griner over Paul Whelan. The basketball player over the Marine facing 16 years. There was only room for one in the lifeboat, and the Marine got left behind. Well, why did they make that choice? Well, you should know that Whelan is a Trump voter, and he made the mistake of saying so on social media. He’s paying the price for that now. Brittney Griner is not. She’s got very different politics. Brittney Griner despises the United States. She’s been very vocal about that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I personally have little sympathy for Griner and wouldn’t have lost sleep over her staying in prison. Like Whelan, she made a conscious choice to hang out in Putin’s Russia — in her case her motive was profit-driven, as she was making $$ playing basketball in Russia’s “Premier League”. Bet she won’t do that again.
Agreed. He does sound like a shady character.
Whelan articles
The U.S. no longer has an ambassador to Russia: Huntsman resigned from his post in early August. And Trump, in nominating Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to replace Huntsman, has added yet another layer of complication to Paul’s case. Sullivan is a central figure in the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry, given his proximity to Pompeo and others involved in Trump’s alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine.
David Urban, a lobbyist with ties to the Trump Administration who has volunteered as a pro-bono advocate for the Whelan family, put the difference in Trump’s approach down to the relative ease in negotiating with the Swedish authorities versus Putin. “Clearly, the dynamics in Paul’s case are complicated, and nothing like with A$AP Rocky, when Trump can make a call and say, ‘Please let this guy go,’ and it happens.”
Among Trump Administration officials, Huntsman was one of the few who thought the U.S. should consider releasing Yaroshenko to secure Whelan’s freedom. But F.B.I. and Justice Department officials resisted the idea, making a slippery-slope argument that it would create an incentive for Russia to grab other Americans in the future.
Within the State Department, there was little appetite for making concessions to Russia, a result of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and the Kremlin ordering hundreds of American diplomats out of the country, in 2017 and 2018, as part of a wave of tit-for-tat expulsions.
Afterward, outside the courthouse, Sullivan, the U.S. Ambassador, called the decision “a mockery of justice,” saying that Whelan had “been horribly mistreated.”
Under O’Brien, who in September, 2019, succeeded Bolton as national-security adviser, Trump himself had become involved in Whelan’s case. N.S.C. staff, concerned about a lack of action from the State Department, decided to make the case to Trump that he should voice concerns about the detentions of Whelan and two other Americans in phone calls with Putin. In recent months, Trump has raised Whelan’s detention with Putin, along with the case of Trevor Reed, another former marine who was charged with assaulting a police officer in Moscow, in August, 2019, and sentenced to nine years in Russian prison two weeks after Whelan’s verdict; and Michael Calvey, a high-profile American investor in Moscow who was charged with embezzlement and has been under house arrest since April, 2019. According to a current Administration official, Trump has urged Putin to free the three Americans but has not expressed any willingness to give in to Russia’s demands for the release of either Yaroshenko or Bout. Senior Administration officials have also regularly raised their cases with Russian counterparts.
U.S. officials dispute the notion that they have been inactive. “We have queried them and are interested in engaging,” Ambassador Roger Carstens, the special Presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department, said, of his contacts with his counterparts in Russia. “The ball is in their court.” On August 25th, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun visited Moscow and met with high-ranking Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Biegun reiterated the U.S. position that Whelan had been denied due process by being tried and convicted in secret and pushed for his release.
Washington post
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said he had a productive meeting with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, late last week, amplifying a growing chorus of voices in Washington who are concerned about Whelan’s situation.
Business insider
While both the US and Russia have been quiet on the possibility of a swap that includes Bout — who has about 18 years left on his prison sentence in America — multiple officials have said internal discussions are underway.
I just wanted to be sure and I do think it’s pretty clear
You are trump reactionary. You bash trump.
Whelan is not a good trade for bout.
Griner is an even worse trade than whelan.
Trump spoke to Putin directly about whelan.
I doubt your hero Biden ever did that.
Griner is out because she hates America and trump.
Whelan is not a point of concern for President Biden because he likes trump.
You and the armies of drones who engage in reactionary false attacks on trump would do well to become more rational.
The false ‘trump was installed by Putin’ argument is an important reason trump negotiations were limited on whelan.
Biden is president. He didn’t get whelan out. That’s the problem— not the observably false claim that “trump did nothing”
Lots of smoke around this guy
Someone explain it to me
He’s ex military. Russia charged him with espionage, receiving a drive with secrets on it. Maybe they were watching his contact if it’s true. If he was our spy then it’s all the more inexcusable to leave him there instead of Griner
It was in the New Yorker article above but here it is again
Under O’Brien, who in September, 2019, succeeded Bolton as national-security adviser, Trump himself had become involved in Whelan’s case. N.S.C. staff, concerned about a lack of action from the State Department, decided to make the case to Trump that he should voice concerns about the detentions of Whelan and two other Americans in phone calls with Putin. In recent months, Trump has raised Whelan’s detention with Putin, along with the case of Trevor Reed, another former marine who was charged with assaulting a police officer in Moscow, in August, 2019, and sentenced to nine years in Russian prison two weeks after Whelan’s verdict; and Michael Calvey, a high-profile American investor in Moscow who was charged with embezzlement and has been under house arrest since April, 2019. According to a current Administration official, Trump has urged Putin to free the three Americans but has not expressed any willingness to give in to Russia’s demands for the release of either Yaroshenko or Bout. Senior Administration officials have also regularly raised their cases with Russian counterparts.
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