Former President Donald Trump opposed exchanging convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for several U.S. prisoners, including a one-for-one swap for Paul Whelan, a Marine whom the United States considers wrongfully detained, according to multiple sources.
“We rejected several deals with the Russians. All of them involved giving up Viktor Bout, so we wouldn’t do it,” a former administration official told the Washington Examiner.
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In a high-profile deal made public Thursday, Bout was released in exchange for WNBA superstar Brittney Griner after serving close to two-thirds of his sentence. Whelan has spent nearly four years in Russian detention after he was convicted on espionage charges. A prisoner swap that freed American Trevor Reed earlier this year also left Whelan behind.
Justice Department officials have long opposed Bout’s release. Known as the “Merchant of Death,” the Russian prisoner was serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to kill Americans. His life inspired a 2005 film, Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage.
Trump confirmed he “turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan,” writing in a Truth Social post that he “wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people.”
“I would have gotten Paul out, however, just as I did with a record number of other hostages,” the former president said.
A former senior Trump official disputed the characterization that Russia had ever outright proposed a Bout-Whelan swap during hostage negotiations, saying that Moscow knew Trump would never accept a deal to release Bout. Still, the official said releasing Bout was a top priority for Russia.
Instead, the Trump White House reached a deal with Moscow to resume arms control talks and negotiations on cyber policy and U.S. investment, with the offer to free Whelan and former Marine Trevor Reed as a goodwill gesture. That arrangement fell apart after Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
Former top Trump appointees said Washington had lost crucial leverage with Russia by freeing Bout and that a one-for-one hostage trade sets a bad precedent.
“They thought that they could wait and get a better deal. And apparently, they waited and got a better deal,” one former official said of Moscow.
“It should never have been one for one for Bout,” this person said. “If he’s the No. 1, once you trade him away, there are no other bad guys, and they can snatch as many people as they want.”
The White House did not respond when asked why the administration decided to override DOJ’s objections to freeing Bout or whether Russia had offered Biden a Bout-Whelan deal.
The Biden administration on Thursday defended the one-for-one trade, with one senior official telling reporters in a call that the U.S. “explored a wide range of alternatives and permutations” to resolve both the Whelan and Griner cases.
But “it became clear … in recent weeks that it was a choice to bring Brittney Griner home right now or bring no one home right now,” the official said.
“The choice was one or none,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. In a statement, Blinken described Moscow as “unwilling” to release Whelan.
The White House said the Kremlin rejected every proposal that included Whelan due to the “sham” charges against him, putting a deal out of reach.
“Regrettably, due to the nature of the sham espionage charges Russia levied against Paul, the Russians have treated [and] continue to treat his situation differently from Brittany’s and rejected each and every one of our proposals for his release,” a senior official told reporters.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration had sought “through every step of this process” to bring Whelan home, adding, “We made every possible offer available to us to secure his release.”
“The Russians were not willing to negotiate in good faith for the release of Paul Whelan at this time,” she added.
If the U.S. “had exactly enough to bring Paul Whelan home, he would be home today,” a senior official briefing reporters said. “It is an indication that we don’t right now — or at least in the Russian view [we] don’t.”
The official added: “But that is just a matter of continuing to negotiate.”
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Whelan was visited in person last week by a senior U.S. government official, according to the Biden administration. The White House is still seeking Whelan’s release from Russia, where he is serving 16 years on charges of espionage.
“We will never relent until we bring Paul home, too,” a senior administration official said.
