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State Department officials met on Monday with representatives of Brittney Griner’s WNBA team to discuss the Phoenix Mercury star’s months-long detention in Russia and the Biden administration’s efforts to secure her release, the agency reported. Associated Press.
The State Department confirmed the meeting, which involved officials from its specialized office that advocates for hostages and wrongly detained Americans, but did not offer additional details about what was said or who was specifically present.
The government has previously said it is working to bring Griner and another American, Michigan corporate security executive, Paul Whelan, home from Russia.
Griner was detained at an airport in Russia on February 17 after authorities there said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing a cannabis derivative. She could serve 10 years in prison on drug smuggling charges.
In May, the State Department reclassified Griner as wrongfully detained and transferred oversight of her case to the State Department’s Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, or SPEHA.
After Sunday’s game in Washington, Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard told reporters the team expected to be informed Monday.
“It’s now been 115 days, 115 days that she was wrongfully imprisoned in another country, and we just want her to come home,” Nygaard said via CNN after Phoenix’s 99-90 win in overtime over the Washington. mystics.
She continued: “I hope it’s not just a show, to say they informed us, which I’m afraid of. Hopefully it’s something that shows positive progress and we learn something new that helps us learn more about how we’re going to bring our teammate home.”
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According to CNN, Nygaard has invited President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to attend Mercury’s game against the Mystics in Phoenix on Tuesday.
“You are welcome to come to our locker room and talk to us. You are also welcome to just enjoy the game, you can see what our team is like without Brittney Griner, but we would also love to see you as a supporter of our team,” Nygaard told CNN. “And, uh, yeah, we have snacks in our dressing room. We have all kinds of things we’d like — honestly, you can sit on the couch, you can sit on the couch next to me.”
A week ago, Trevor Reed, a US Marines veteran and former State Department contractor who spent nearly three years in Russian prison, spoke to Griner at a meeting in Houston for Griner, calling on the US government to help her and Whelan bring them back to America while maintaining their current living conditions.
“They live in a cell that looks like it’s something from the Middle Ages,” Reed said. “As an American, you can’t imagine what that place looks like until you actually see it for yourself.”
After a brief period of silence on the matter, the WNBA and the basketball community at large have repeatedly called on the White House to return her to the U.S.
In an interview with “Good Morning America” last month, Griner’s wife Cherelle called on President Joe Biden to get involved in bringing Griner back.
Contributors: Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY Sports; The Associated Press
