Brittney Griner Breaks Silence After Controversial Swap
In an Instagram post on Friday, WNBA player Brittney Griner broke her silence after being returned from Russia in exchange for Viktor Bout, the convicted arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.”
“It feels so good to be home! The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn,” Griner said in an Instagram post. “I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.”
Viktor Bout was a former Soviet military officer who was serving a 25-year sentence in the United States for crimes like plotting to kill Americans, getting and transferring anti-aircraft missiles, and giving material support to terrorist groups, possibly even al-Qaeda.
It’s unclear how the Biden administration could have justified this agreement as anything other than a chance to boast about releasing a pseudo-celebrity who also happens to tick off all the crucial diversity boxes. Many have criticized the swap because the Biden administration failed to free former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan first or as part of the deal.
Griner continued, “I am grateful to each person who advocated for me, especially my wife, Cherelle Griner, my family, Lindsay Kagawa Colas and Casey Wasserman and my whole team at Wasserman, Vince Kozar and the Phoenix Mercury, the players of the WNBA, and my entire WNBA family, Terri Jackson and the WNBPA staff, my Russian legal team Maria Blagovolina and Alex Boykov, the leaders, activists, and grassroots organizations, Gov. Richardson and Mickey Bergman of the Richardson Center, the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, Roger Carstens and the SPEHA team, and of course, a special thank you to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary Blinken and the entire Biden-Harris Administration.”
In her post, Griner claimed, without evidence, that Biden is “committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too.”
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