White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned Tuesday that an “unlucky mistake” prevented WNBA star Brittney Griner from calling her spouse from a Russian jail over the weekend.
Cherelle Griner mentioned the Phoenix Mercury heart tried to name 11 occasions on Saturday — the couple’s fourth marriage ceremony anniversary — however the US embassy in Moscow, which mentioned it might join the couple, as a substitute let the cellphone ring with out answering.
“This was an unlucky mistake. And the Division of State is working to rectify this as shortly as doable,” Jean-Pierre mentioned at her common briefing.
“I perceive there's a cellphone interview [that] has been scheduled. I’m not going to talk to when. That's as much as Brittney Griner’s accomplice to determine — her spouse to determine in the event that they need to make that public.”
Cherelle Griner instructed The Related Press that she hasn’t been capable of converse together with her spouse in 4 months and that she desires to speak instantly with President Biden in regards to the case.
“I discover it unacceptable and I've zero belief in our authorities proper now. If I can’t belief you to catch a Saturday name exterior of enterprise hours, how can I belief you to really be negotiating on my spouse’s behalf to return dwelling? As a result of that’s a a lot larger ask than to catch a Saturday name,” Cherelle Griner mentioned.
Jean-Pierre mentioned that she had no info concerning a possible name between Biden and Cherelle Griner, however insisted that “any American that's held overseas is a precedence for this president. We’ve spoken to that and we are going to do all the things that we will to deliver them dwelling.”
Griner, 31, was arrested in February at Moscow’s worldwide airport days earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine. She allegedly was touring with a weed vaporizer.
A Kremlin spokesman denied Monday that Griner is getting used as a “hostage.” saying, “She violated Russian legislation, and now she’s being prosecuted.”
Griner is one among two Individuals recognized to be held in Russia. The opposite, former Marine Paul Whelan, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in jail on a cost of espionage.
Biden is an opponent of marijuana legalization and as a senator authored laws that despatched some pot sellers to jail for all times with out parole. Final 12 months, the White Home fired at the least 5 staffers who admitted to previous pot use.
Outgoing President Donald Trump final 12 months commuted the sentences of seven individuals serving life phrases for marijuana — together with two males who got life with out parole below the three-strikes provision of the Biden-authored 1994 crime legislation.
Marijuana is authorized for medical or leisure use below state legislation in most components of the US, however American authorities nonetheless arrested greater than 350,000 individuals in 2020 for pot offenses, based on FBI information.
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