{"id":1547395,"date":"2022-07-10T11:19:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-10T15:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1547395"},"modified":"2022-07-10T11:19:32","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T15:19:32","slug":"ex-governor-clinton-crony-to-seek-wnba-superstar-brittney-griners-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-governor-clinton-crony-to-seek-wnba-superstar-brittney-griners-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex Governor, Clinton Crony To Seek WNBA Superstar Brittney Griner\u2019s Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fex-governor-clinton-crony-to-seek-wnba-superstar-brittney-griners-release%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1547395&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/new-mexico\">New Mexico<\/a> Democratic Governor Bill Richardson is planning to go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/russia\">Russia<\/a> to try to win the release of WNBA star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/brittney-griners-wife-begs-biden-to-get-wnba-star-freed-from-russia\">Brittney Griner<\/a>, according to a report.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson, who served as energy secretary and UN ambassador in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/bill-clinton\">Clinton administration<\/a> and has mounted several private diplomatic missions over the last few decades, is expected to go to Moscow in the coming weeks, <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/International\/gov-bill-richardson-travel-moscow-talks-freeing-brittney\/story?id=86531091\">ABC News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe asked the Richardson Center to help and I\u2019m encouraged that he might be going,\u201d Griner\u2019s wife, Cherelle Griner, said in a statement to the network.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the 6-foot, 9-inch Phoenix Mercury star, who has been held in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/russia\">Russia<\/a> on drug charges since February 17 despite U.S. diplomatic efforts to win her release, pleaded guilty Thursday to bringing hashish oil into the country. Griner, however, said she did not intend to do so. She was playing in the off-season for a Russian team when she was allegedly caught with illegal vape cartridges at the airport.<\/p>\n<p>The guilty plea sparked speculation it could pave the way for a prisoner swap. Russia reportedly wants the release of arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is known as \u201cthe Merchant of Death\u201d and is serving a 25-year sentence in the United States, in exchange for Griner.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-406850\" class=\"wp-image-406850 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-864x576.jpg\" alt=\"Ex-New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is planning to travel to Moscow to try to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner.\" width=\"864\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-864x576-1.jpg 864w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-300x200-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-768x512-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-1536x1024-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-2048x1365-1.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-1800x1200-1.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-955082078-1200x800-1.jpg 1200w\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-406850\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will try to win the WNBA star\u2019s release from a Russian prison. (Tasos Katopodis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/brittney-griners-wife-begs-biden-to-get-wnba-star-freed-from-russia\">Griner<\/a>\u00a0had flown to Russia to finish her season for UMMC Ekaterinburg when she was arrested. The team competes in the Russian Premier League and FIBA Europe\u2019s EuroLeague. WNBA players can make far bigger salaries playing in Europe and Asia during the league\u2019s off-season than they can earn in the United States, where interest in women\u2019s basketball is limited.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson in 2011 founded the Richardson Center, a foundation that works to negotiate the release of political prisoners globally. He most recently helped arrange a prisoner swap that brought home former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed after nearly two and a half years in captivity in Russia. He also worked to win the release of Otto Warmbier, who was held in North Korea until 2017, when he was sent back to the U.S. in a vegetative state.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to representing the Griner family, Richardson is working on behalf of the family of Paul Whelan, another former Marine who has been held in Russia for more than three years.<\/p>\n<p>Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.<\/p>\n<p>The White House National Security Council told ABC it was in contact with Richardson and \u201cvalued his efforts\u201d but declined to say more.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson was tied to the sex trafficking case of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/jeffrey-epstein\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> in 2019, when his name surfaced in a civil suit Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre filed against Epstein crony Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre alleged she was trafficked to Richardson, among other high-profile men while she was underage. Richardson denied the claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson is planning to go to Russia to try to win the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner, according to a report. Richardson, who served as energy secretary and UN ambassador in the Clinton administration and has mounted several private diplomatic missions over the last few decades, is expected &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":729,"featured_media":1898540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1547395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1547395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1547395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1547395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1547395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}