During a podcast appearance on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, former President Donald Trump sided with Russia over the arrest of Brittney Griner, claiming that the basketball player, who has been held in Russian detention since February, is “a potentially spoiled person” who went to Russia “loaded up with drugs."
Griner, a professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), was detained by Russian customs after cartridges containing hashish oil were found in her luggage.
American officials have expressed concern that Russia may be using her as leverage in response to the Western sanctions imposed against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. News outlets recently reported that the American government offered to swap Griner and United States Marine Paul Whelan for Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker.
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
Trump said:
"She knew you don’t go in there loaded up with drugs, and she admitted it. I assume she admitted it without too much force because it is what it is, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a very good trade, does it?"
"He’s [Bout] absolutely one of the worst in the world, and he’s gonna be given his freedom because a potentially spoiled person goes into Russia loaded up with drugs.”
“She went in there loaded up with drugs into a hostile territory where they’re very vigilant about drugs. They don’t like drugs. And she got caught."
"And now we’re supposed to get her out — and she makes, you know, a lot of money, I guess. We’re supposed to get her out for an absolute killer and one of the biggest arms dealers in the world."
"Killed many Americans. Killed many people."
Bout, an entrepreneur and former Soviet military translator, reportedly used his multiple air transport companies to smuggle weapons since the collapse of the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s.
In 2011, Bout was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to kill United States citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization, and was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment.
The White House has not officially confirmed the trade and the Department of Justice (DOJ) is generally against prisoner trades. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that thus far there has yet to be "an agreement" on the matter.
People were hardly surprised that Trump would side with Russia and many suggested a different sort of swap to bring Griner home.
It did not go well for the former president.
Trump's supporters have repeatedly asserted that Griner would have been home by now if Trump were still in office given his often deferential relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Russian government has claimed that customs officers found “vapes” containing hashish oil in Griner’s luggage at a Moscow airport. Many in the U.S. have called on the Biden administration to do whatever it can to get Griner home.
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