Prisoner Swap: Trump Attacks Biden Over ‘Stupid Deal That Returned Griner To US’

Former President Donald Trump of the United States has criticized his successor, Joe Biden for exchanging Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for US women’s NBA star Brittney Griner in a deal mediated by Saudi Arabia.

After almost a year in Russian custody, Brittney was released on December 8 as part of a prisoner exchange with the Biden administration.

In response on his social media handle, Trump asked: “What kind of a bargain is it to swap Brittney Griner, a basketball player who openly despises our nation for the man known as ‘The Merchant of Death’?” In his opinion, Paul Whelan should have been set free rather than Griner.

Whelan, a former Marine who holds citizenship in four countries, including the United States, was detained in Russia in 2018 on suspicion of espionage. He was found guilty in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in jail.

In exchange for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year sentence for plotting to kill Americans, Griner, who was detained in February for bringing vape cartridges containing hashish oil into the country, was freed. This led many detractors of President Biden’s administration to claim that Russia received the better deal in the exchange.

Three days after Christmas in 2018, Mr. Whelan was arrested on false espionage allegations while Trump was still in office. When he was in the White House and had the authority to free him, he did nothing.

John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, asserted that the trade increases the likelihood that other Americans may be held as leverage by rogue nations.

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