Cherelle Griner, the wife of Women’s National Basketball Association Star Brittney Griner, met with United States president Joe Biden on Friday.
Biden also met with the sister of Elizabeth Whelan, sister of detained former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
It was the first meeting between them, following Griner’s detainment in Russia since February over drug charges.
The Phoenix Mercury star was found guilty of bringing vape cartridges with cannabis oil into the country and was sentenced to 9 years and one million-ruble fine.
“One of the things that the President wanted to make clear is, and one of the reasons he’s meeting with the families, is that he wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day, on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.
Biden “appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Brittney and Paul from those who love them most, and acknowledged that every minute they are being held is a minute too long,” Jean-Pierre added.
“It wasn’t a meeting where the President told me the news that I want to hear,” Cherelle Griner told CNN Friday after her talk with Biden. “It wasn’t that, but it was one of those still pivotal meetings where… it allowed me to have confidence in what he’s doing right now.”
Cherelle added that she communicates with Brittney via letters and that the WNBA star is “not well.” “We’ve had some very disturbing communications about her venting about how she is at that moment, to the point where I was very concerned,” Cherelle said. “She’s losing it. We’ve reached that amount of days where even a strong person is like, ‘Babe I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to take it.’”
Jean-Pierre added that Russia would soon accept the United States’s offer to exchange the two prisoners for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer currently incarcerated in the US.
“The Russians should accept our offer,” Jean-Pierre added. “They should accept our offer today. We will keep working diligently until the day we get to share that good news.”
