Senior White House Adviser: Team Effort Won Brittney Griner’s Release
Finally, out WNBA star Brittney Griner is returning to the United States after a harrowing 10-month ordeal of being captive in Russia after she was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February.
At the security checkpoint in the airport, Russian authorities found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She was convicted and imprisoned on drug charges.Winning Griner’s release was no small feat and involved numerous government agencies and officials who worked for months to secure her freedom.Griner’s agent Lindsay Colas released a statement Thursday afternoon saying that Griner’s team has been “overwhelmed with gratitude to President Biden, Vice President Harris and the entire Biden-Harris Administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the members of The White House National Security team, along with the entire Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs team at the U.S.
Department of State, led by Roger Carstens and including Fletcher Schoen.“In addition, we remain forever grateful to Governor Bill Richardson and Mickey Bergman from the Richardson Center, and BG’s tireless Russian legal team, Maria Blagovolina and Alex Boykov.”The statement added, “In return, our commitment to President Biden and to the families of Americans who are being held hostage and wrongfully detained — especially Elizabeth and David Whelan, on behalf of their brother Paul Whelan, who remains in Russia and whose continued detention weighs heavily on our hearts — is to continue our work in the movement to bring them home.”Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was mayor of Atlanta prior to becoming President Biden’s senior adviser and director of the White House Office for Public.
