President Joe Biden sat down in the Oval Office Brittney Griner’s wife Cherelle Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan‘s sister Elizabeth late Friday, Reuters reported.
Biden conducted separate meetings to reassure families that their loved one “is first,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“We will continue to do everything we can and work tirelessly every day to make sure we bring them home,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have joined Biden at the meetings, the White House said.
The meetings mark the first time the President however, has met personally with the Griner and Whelan families Biden spoke to Cherelle Griner by phone in July.
Paul Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, said she was has been trying for more than three years to get a face-to-face meeting to talk about her brother Paul, who was arrested in Moscow in 2018, convicted of espionage in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years hard labor.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, got arrested at a Moscow airport on February 17 for possessing less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. she was was convicted to nine years in a Russian penal colony on August 4th.
Before the meeting, Jean-Pierre told reporters Biden was committed to “bringing her family members home safely.” As we have said before, we believe Russia is wrong to be holding Brittany and Paul in unbearable circumstances.”
In the meantime, Strategic Communications Coordinator at the National Security Council, John Kirby, told CNN on Friday that the president “will not let up” in the face of ongoing arrests.
“He’s confident that this will remain a priority for him and his team and that they will work as hard as they can,” Kirby said.
Inside the White House has held talks with Russian officials For months reporters have been asking why Russia has no US…
