- The brother of Paul Whelan, the ex-US Marine imprisoned in Russia, slammed Donald Trump.
- Trump criticized the Biden administration for the prisoner swap for Brittney Griner that didn't include Whelan.
The brother of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who has been jailed in Russia since 2018, criticized former President Donald Trump for only addressing his brother's imprisonment to attack President Joe Biden.
David Whelan said on Twitter that Trump has mentioned his brother's "wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency," which he said was "zero."
"I don't suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero)," he wrote.
—David Whelan (@davidpwhelan) December 9, 2022
Whelan, now 52, was a corporate security executive convicted on espionage charges in Russia and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Both he and the US have vehemently denied that he was a spy.
Trump has criticized the Biden administration for arranging a prisoner swap to exchange WNBA star Brittney Griner with convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in a deal that did not include Whelan.
The notorious Bout, who has been nicknamed the "Merchant of Death," had served more than 10 years of his minimum 25-year sentence for conspiring to provide "material support" to a terrorist organization, promising to supply them with anti-aircraft missiles, and engaging in a plot to kill Americans and US officials.
Trump's former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, revealed on Friday that the Trump administration had the opportunity to swap Whelan for Bout in 2018 but chose not to.
In his posts on Truth Social, Trump questioned why the Biden administration arranged the swap for Griner, who he said "openly hates our country," while not including Whelan.
In 2020, Griner called on the WNBA to stop playing the national anthem amid ongoing protests about racism and police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd.
Trump has previously been critical of athletes who have protested the national anthem.
President Joe Biden has said that Russia is treating Whelan's case differently to Griner's but said that the US would "never give up" trying to secure his release.
"This was not a choice of which American to bring home," Biden said.
According to CNN, Russia declined multiple options of Russian prisoners to trade for Whelan, telling the US they would only accept a swap for former colonel Vadim Krasikov, a Russian spy imprisoned in Germany. The German government was reportedly not willing to free Krasikov.
In a phone interview with CNN on Thursday, Whelan said that he was happy for Griner but "disappointed" that his own release had not been secured.
"I was arrested for a crime that never occurred," Whelan told CNN. "I don't understand why I'm still sitting here."