{"id":1547873,"date":"2022-07-11T06:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T10:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1547873"},"modified":"2022-07-11T06:35:01","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T10:35:01","slug":"former-governor-bill-richarson-to-make-trip-to-moscow-in-hopes-of-freeing-wnba-star-brittney-griner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-governor-bill-richarson-to-make-trip-to-moscow-in-hopes-of-freeing-wnba-star-brittney-griner\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Governor Bill Richarson to Make Trip to Moscow in Hopes of Freeing WNBA Star Brittney Griner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/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%2Fformer-governor-bill-richarson-to-make-trip-to-moscow-in-hopes-of-freeing-wnba-star-brittney-griner%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=1547873&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 class=\"subheading\">With Joe Biden either unwilling or unable to free WNBA star Brittney Griner from her five-month-long detention in Russia on drug charges, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) has decided to step in and help.<\/p>\n<p>A source told ABC News on Saturday that Richardson intends to make the long journey to Moscow in the next few weeks, ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/34219923\/report-former-gov-bill-richardson-travel-russia-talks-aimed-freeing-brittney-griner\">reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<div class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson emerges from his office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Thursday, March 9, 2020. (AP Photo\/Morgan Lee)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Richardson\u2019s involvement could be a prelude to a prisoner swap involving Griner. The former New Mexico governor recently worked such a deal with the Russians to gain the freedom of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, whom the Russians had held for more than two years.<\/p>\n<p>A prisoner swap involving Griner could be more complicated, however, since the Russians are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/more-sports\/report-russia-hints-at-prisoner-exchange-swapping-brittney-griner-for-notorious-russian-arms-dealer\/ar-AAZ5R30\">reportedly<\/a> asking to exchange the high-profile WNBA player for notorious Russian arms smuggler Victor Bout, aka \u201cThe Merchant of Death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brittney Griner was initially detained by Russian authorities after allegedly being discovered with vape cartridges infused with hashish oil in her luggage. Due to the nature of the offense and the reported amount involved, Griner could face up to ten years in jail under Russian law,<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Richardson will not make the trip as an official representative of the U.S. government. Instead, he will travel to Russia as a representative of the Griner family and the family of Paul Whelan, another former U.S. Marine, ESPN reports.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Griner pleaded guilty to drug possession charges against her in a Russian court. Though, her legal team was quick to add that the plea had more to do with acknowledging guilt for the facilitation of a prisoner exchange and the understanding that her chances of an acquittal in a politically-charged court were virtually nil.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson\u2019s assistance comes at the behest of Brittney Giner\u2019s wife, Cherelle Griner, who recently said the Biden administration was \u201cnot doing anything\u201d to gain her wife\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Brittney Griner\u2019s wife Cherelle says it is \u201cvery disheartening\u201d that she still has not heard back from the White House \u2014 after Brittney penned a handwritten letter to Pres. Biden from a Russian prison pleading for help. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MTyQqCJIBj\">pic.twitter.com\/MTyQqCJIBj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBSMornings\/status\/1544294290179981318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 5, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Griner was in Russia playing for a Russian women\u2019s professional basketball team. A practice not uncommon for WNBA players when their home league is not in season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Joe Biden either unwilling or unable to free WNBA star Brittney Griner from her five-month-long detention in Russia on drug charges, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1547991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1547873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547873","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1547873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1547873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1547991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1547873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1547873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1547873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}