{"id":1767900,"date":"2022-12-08T14:02:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1767900"},"modified":"2022-12-08T14:02:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T19:02:59","slug":"i-dont-understand-marine-vet-left-in-russian-prison-greatly-disappointed-after-griner-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-dont-understand-marine-vet-left-in-russian-prison-greatly-disappointed-after-griner-swap\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Don\u2019t Understand\u2019: Marine Vet Left In Russian Prison \u2018Greatly Disappointed\u2019 After Griner Swap"},"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\">28<\/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%2Fi-dont-understand-marine-vet-left-in-russian-prison-greatly-disappointed-after-griner-swap%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=1767900&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>U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan told CNN on Thursday that he was \u201cgreatly disappointed\u201d that President Joe Biden\u2019s deal to secure Brittney Griner\u2019s release from a Russian prison did not also include a release for him.<\/p>\n<p>Whelan, who has been <a href=\"https:\/\/dailywire.com\/news\/the-merchant-of-death-for-griner-and-whelan-why-the-russian-prisoner-swap-is-a-risky-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">imprisoned in Russia<\/a> for nearly four years since his arrest, is currently serving 16 years in a penal colony for a crime that he says never happened. The Canadian-born Marine veteran \u2014 who holds U.S., British, and Irish citizenship \u2014 was arrested in 2018 and accused of espionage. He was sentenced to prison two years later.<\/p>\n<p>Although he was happy to see Griner released, he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/news\/just-in-paul-whelan-says-hes-greatly-disappointed-brittney-griner-prisoner-swap-didnt-secure-his-release-too\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disappointed<\/a> to have been left behind, Whelan told CNN\u2019s Jennifer Hansler from the Russian prison on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201c[Whelan] has been there nearly 4 years on espionage charges \u2026 He was very disappointed that he was left behind, though he was very happy that Brittney Griner got out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CNN\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jmhansler?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jmhansler<\/a> on Paul Whelan, who is still detained in Russia, reacting to Brittney Griner\u2019s release <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DkfzcPJL5z\">pic.twitter.com\/DkfzcPJL5z<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Recount (@therecount) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/therecount\/status\/1600891027593646089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred,\u201d Whelan said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why I\u2019m still sitting here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whelan also told Hansler that in the days and weeks leading up to the <a href=\"https:\/\/dailywire.com\/news\/wnba-star-brittney-griner-freed-from-russian-prison-in-swap-for-arms-dealer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prisoner swap<\/a> \u2014 Griner for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is also known as the \u201cMerchant of Death\u201d \u2014 he had actually begun to believe that there was some hope he would be included in the deal.<\/p>\n<p>Whelan\u2019s family also released a statement in the wake of the news, saying that it was always a great day when a wrongfully imprisoned person was released, but that they still hoped for the day it would happen for him.<\/p>\n<p>His brother noted that the family <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2022\/12\/08\/biden-leaves-marine-paul-whelan-behind-in-russia-brittney-griner-swap-family-catastrophe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">had been warned<\/a>\u00a0ahead of the news breaking that Paul would not be a part of the swap, adding, \u201cThat early warning meant that our family has been able to mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us. And a catastrophe for Paul. I do not know if he is aware yet, although he will surely learn from Russian media \u2026 I can\u2019t even fathom how Paul will feel when he learns. Paul has worked so hard to survive nearly 4 years of this injustice. His hopes had soared with the knowledge that the US government was taking concrete steps for once towards his release. He\u2019d been worrying about where he\u2019d live when he got back to the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whelan\u2019s family made it clear that they did not begrudge Griner gaining her freedom, noting that the two cases were separate and that there had always been a chance that they would be freed one at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan told CNN on Thursday that he was \u201cgreatly disappointed\u201d that President Joe Biden\u2019s deal to secure Brittney Griner\u2019s release from a Russian prison did not also include a release for him. Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia for nearly four years since his arrest, is currently serving 16 years &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":1767903,"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":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1767900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"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\/1767900","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\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1767900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1767903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1767900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1767900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}