Extra Run: Brittney Griner's Self Brought Grief
Russia doesn't care about her leftist privilege.
(Note: I started putting this together a couple months ago, stopped and have only recently finished it up. That is why some of the material is a couple of months old.)
In the WNBA off season, Britney Griner plays for a team in Moscow, Russia. She traveled to Moscow about a week before Russia invaded the Ukraine back in February. At an airport in Moscow, she was charged with carrying vape cartridges with traces of cannabis oil. She is currently on trial and faces up to 10 years in prison. Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in U.S. courts, acquittals can be overturned. She traveled to another country and is at the mercy of those laws.
After a Disastrous Phone Call, Wife of WNBA Star Goes Nuclear on the Biden White House
Griner’s wife has also gone nuclear on the Biden administration. On their anniversary, a call arranged between the two women never occurred because no one was on the other line at the US Embassy in Russia to connect the call. You cannot make this up (via ESPN) [emphasis mine]:
WNBA star Brittney Griner tried to call her wife nearly a dozen times through the U.S. Embassy in Russia on the couple's fourth anniversary Saturday, but they never connected since the phone line at the embassy was not staffed, Cherelle Griner said Monday.
The couple has not spoken by phone in the four months since Griner's arrest in Russia on drug-related charges. That was to have changed Saturday, when a long-awaited call was to have finally taken place. But the day came and went without any contact, leaving an anguished Cherelle Griner to wonder what went wrong and to suspect at least initially that Russian authorities had thwarted the call.
On Monday, she said she learned from her wife's lawyers a more distressing truth: Brittney Griner had actually tried to call 11 times over a period of several hours, dialing a number she'd been given at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, which the couple had been told would then patch the call through to Cherelle Griner in Phoenix. But each time, the call went unanswered because the desk at the embassy where the phone rang was apparently unstaffed Saturday.
[…]
For Cherelle Griner, the experience has further exacerbated already simmering frustrations about the U.S. government's response to her wife's case. U.S. officials have repeatedly said they are working behind the scenes to get the two-time Olympian home from Russia and consider her case a top priority. But Cherelle Griner said she remains "very pissed" by Saturday's ordeal, especially since the call had been on the schedule for two weeks and yet no one warned her during that time that it might be logistically impossible because of the weekend.
She added: "I find it unacceptable and I have zero trust in our government right now. If I can't trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife's behalf to come home? Because that's a much bigger ask than to catch a Saturday call.''
Cherelle Griner said a contact in the U.S. government had apologized to her for the error. She said she has since learned that the one number Brittney Griner had been told to dial typically processes calls from prisoners on Mondays through Fridays but not weekends.
"But mind you," Cherelle Griner said in the interview, "this phone call had been scheduled for almost two weeks -- with a weekend date."
I can see now how our exit from Afghanistan devolved into a shambolic mess. I can see how our State Department gets outmaneuvered and pushed around. Where’s Tony Blinken on this? Where’s anybody from this administration on this supposedly wrongful detention of an American citizen? You get our people out especially if it’s on some minor drug charge. She didn’t murder anyone. She wasn’t dealing drugs. This is Sesame Street stuff, and it shouldn’t be hard. Even things that could be easy wins for this government become a tortured process. It’s a tire fire. The simple things cannot be done with this crew. They couldn’t even manage a phone call that everyone knew was coming on a weekend week in advance. Griner remains detained until at least July 2.
Brittney Griner sends letter to White House appealing for freedom: 'I'm terrified I might be here forever'
Griner's representatives released excerpts of the letter to the media, which read as follows:
"As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I'm terrified I might be here forever."
"On the 4th of July, our family normally honors the service of those who fought for our freedom, including my father who is a Vietnam War Veteran. It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year."
"I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don't forget about me and the other American Detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home. I voted for the first time in 2020 and I voted for you. I believe in you. I still have so much good to do with my freedom that you can help restore. I miss my wife! I miss my family! I miss my teammates! It kills me to know they are suffering so much right now. I am grateful for whatever you can do at this moment to get me home."
After 130 days of detention, Griner's trial began on July 1. Per the Russian news agency TASS, Griner said in court she understood the charges against her, but declined to enter a plea. The trial is expected to continue on July 7 after a delay due to the absence of two witnesses.
At some point during her trial, Griner is likely to plead guilty, according to TJ Quinn of ESPN. Griner would do so "knowing that Russian officials would require an admission of guilt as part of a trade to send her home." Russian authorities have signaled an interest in a prisoner swap that would free convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence. However, the vast discrepancy between the two offenses would make such an exchange difficult for the White House to justify, per the New York Times.
Griner sends letter to Biden pleading for his help
Griner’s supporters have encouraged a prisoner swap like the one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy. The State Department in May designated her as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator.
If Harris had her way:
That’s like trading a hatchback for a corvette. A professional athlete is not worth a spy or a arms dealer. Remember when Obama swapped six Russian spies for two of ours?
Who is accused secret Russian agent Elena Branson?
The woman accused by federal prosecutors of working as a secret Russian agent wed a much-older, government-connected Princeton University professor during her decades of living in the US — and fled the country after the FBI raided her $1 million Upper West Side condo with a terrace overlooking Central Park.
Elena Branson — a Russian native who was named in a six-count federal complaint Tuesday — gained dual US citizenship after marrying the late William Branson, who was 23 years her senior and had a daughter just four years younger than his bride.
William Branson, who died of throat cancer in 2006, was an expert in international economics and a longtime consultant to the World Bank who also served on former President Richard Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisers, according to his obituary on Princeton’s website.
Branson was also a consultant to the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Authorities say Elena Branson is still at large. If she is ever tried and convicted of all the counts against her, she faces up to 35 years in prison.
Not sure how a trade would work if she’s on the loose. Then again, look who’s suggesting the exchange.
Dual citizen charged as Russian spy who ran NYC propaganda center for the Kremlin
The founder of a Russian propaganda center in New York — who helped push an “I Love Russia” campaign — was hit with federal charges Tuesday that she acted as an illegal agent of the Kremlin.
Alleged spy Elena Branson launched the Russia Center New York in Manhattan in 2012, after receiving the authorization from the highest levels of the Russian government, Manhattan prosecutors charged.
They alleged that she even corresponded with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself as part of the effort.
The center served as a Kremlin propaganda machine aimed at spreading its influence in the US, prosecutors said.
Branson’s work with the center, which was financed in part by the Russian government, included hosting an annual “youth forum,” which was “designed to consolidate the Russian-speaking youth community in the United States,” prosecutors allege.
Anyway, if this was a regular American, they’d be on their own. There would be no talks of prisoner swaps. It’s simple: You get caught breaking laws in another country, you pay for it in that country. Griner has played for several years abroad. If you are traveling that much internationally, you might want brush up on some of those countries laws.
If Trump were president, would the Russian’s have stopped her? Would she be at trial? I don’t think so. Back in 2017 LiAngelo Ball along with two other UCLA basketball players caught stealing from a Louis Vuitton store in China? They faced up to ten years in China. President Trump and his State Department helped get them out of that situation. China has some of the strictest laws in the world. When Griner voted for Biden*, she voted for weakness and that’s the response she is getting. You get what you vote for.
Griner’s trial concludes later this week.
The trade seems indeed like a bad one. Griner should have been a bit more cautious. Vape pens with traces? A setup or just stupid?
The embassy foulup is just standard. Anybody that thinks the embassy is worried about citizens is deluded.