The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, recently reached out to Paul Whelan, an American citizen and former marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018 on charges of espionage, according to a source from CNN.
Blinken conveyed a message of support to Whelan during their conversation, assuring him that the U.S. government is actively working towards his release. This marks the second phone call between Blinken and the detained American.
The Biden administration has faced criticism for managing to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap with Russia in December 2022, but not being able to do the same for Whelan. Despite these criticisms, Whelan’s family has defended the administration’s efforts and pushed back against attacks from former President Donald Trump regarding the situation.
In a post on X, previously known as Twitter, David Whelan, Paul Whelan’s brother, hit back at Trump for criticizing the prisoner swap that brought Griner back to the U.S.
“Former President Trump seems to be mentioning my brother #PaulWhelan’s wrongful detention more in the past 24 hours than he did throughout his entire presidency while Paul was being held hostage by #Russia,” wrote David Whelan in his post.
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