Free Republic

Robert O’Brien, former national security adviser in the Trump administration, says that the Russians were willing to make a deal to release both Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed before Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. The Russians reneged on the deal after Biden was declared the winner of the election, according to O’Brien. The goal for the Russians was to improve relations between Washington and Moscow after a meeting in October 2020. But, when the election was called for Biden in November, the deal was off. The article in The Hill that reports on O’Brien’s comments does not mention an...

American officials will hold talks “this week” with Russian leaders about negotiations to release former Marine Paul Whelan, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday. “With respect to the question of whether we’ve had engagement with the Russian Federation on the Whelan case, we will have an engagement with them this week,” Sullivan told reporters. Sullivan was not asked about and did not address the case of American Marc Fogel — who like Whelan was left behind last week when President Biden signed off on a prisoner swap in which the US released convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout...

Conservatives are obsessed with a patriotism litmus test rigged against Black Americans.Brittney Griner’s release from a Russian penal colony Thursday as part of a prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was met with widespread celebration. Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison after vape canisters and cannabis oil were discovered in her luggage at the airport. President Joe Biden’s announcement that Griner was safely on a plane bound for the U.S. means the gay WNBA star will miraculously make it home to her wife and family in time for the holidays. But perhaps not surprisingly, the...

Here’s another of the men whom Biden left behind to extract a black lesbian pothead who hates America because she embodies his rotten base. A teacher from Oakmont who’s been detained in Russia for more than a year remains in custody.This summer, Butler native Marc Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security prison after he was caught with 17 grams of medical marijuana for a spine condition.The U.S. State Department had previously asked Russia to release American citizen Fogel on humanitarian grounds. Prior to that request, a group of nine bipartisan senators called on Secretary of State...