The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist was freed in a prisoner exchange for a notorious Russian arms dealer on Thursday.
Multiple former Trump administration officials blasted President Joe Biden on Thursday for making a prisoner swap to bring WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner back to the United States.
Griner was arrested in February in Russia when customs officials found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. Biden, who said Thursday morning that he spoke with Griner and that she was safely on her way home, referred to “painstaking intense negotiations.”
Her prison sentence was vacated in exchange for the release of Russian arms dealer and “merchant of death” Viktor Bout. His 25-year federal prison sentence, of which he served 12 years, was cut short by Biden.
“The Bout-for-Griner prisoner swap is not a trade, it’s an American surrender,” tweeted John Bolton, a former national security adviser in the Trump administration. “This is not what American strength looks like. Terrorists and rogue states are smiling.”
Richard Grenell, a former U.
