The White House says bringing WNBA star Brittney Griner and security professional Paul Whelan home from Russia remains a top priority for President Joe Biden, insisting Griner’s guilty plea will have no repercussions on the matter’s urgency.
But press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had no updates regarding plans for Biden to speak with Whelan’s family, hours after Griner pleaded guilty to having cannabis oil vaping cartridges in her luggage.
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“It will have no impact on any of the negotiations for the president, the national security team, the State Department, the special envoy that I just spoke about,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday.
The family of Whelan, a former U.S. Marine and police officer who has been in Russian custody for three and a half years on espionage charges, has complained Griner’s case is overshadowing Paul’s plight. Biden spoke with Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle, on the phone this week and responded to a handwritten letter Brittney wrote to him over the July 4 long weekend. Griner was arrested in February.
“We have over 50 people wrongfully detained. We can’t expect that the president is going to, you know, hand call and … write letters to every detainee, but if he decides to do it with one family, he needs to do it with all, and this was my frustration,” Paul Whelan’s sister Elizabeth told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
Jean-Pierre repeated on Thursday that White House aides joined a phone conversation this week between Elizabeth Whelan and Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens.
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“Secretary [Antony] Blinken and national security adviser [Jake] Sullivan have also called her to offer support and reaffirm the president’s commitment to bringing Paul home,” she said.
