WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said over the weekend that he had turned down a proposed one-for-one prisoner swap with Russia that would have brought Michigan's Paul Whelan home.
Trump also claimed on the social media platform Truth Social that "I would have gotten Paul out," but Whelan was arrested in late 2018, just halfway into Trump's term, and Whelan is still imprisoned in Russia after nearly four years.
Trump said the proposed deal that he rejected was for convicted Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout, whom President Joe Biden traded last week for the release and return of basketball player Brittney Griner.
"I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan. I wouldn't have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals," wrote Trump, who has announced he is running for president in 2024.
"I would have gotten Paul out, however, just as I did with a record number of other hostages. The deal for Griner is crazy and bad. The taking wouldn't have even happened during my Administration, but if it did, I would have gotten her out, fast!"
Whelan, 52, of Novi has been held by Russia since his arrest at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 and was later convicted on espionage charges that he's vehemently denied, claiming entrapment. The U.S. government deemed his detention "wrongful" and has pressed for his release from a 16-year sentence of hard labor.
Former Trump adviser Fiona Hill said Sunday on CBS that there was the possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade during the Trump administration, adding that the Russians made it "very clear" that they wanted to swap Americans who had been wrongfully detained for Russians imprisoned in the U.S. like Bout or pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.
Hill, who was senior director for European and Russian affairs on Trump's National Security Council, said that, at the time, there were concerns about the "absurdity" of the Russians asking for the release of a "notorious" arms dealer like Bout, in return for American citizens who had been "set up" in the case of Whelan, and later in the case of Texan Trevor Reed — both former U.S. Marines.
"I also have to say here that President Trump wasn't especially interested in engaging in that swap for also Paul Whelan. He was not particularly interested in Paul's case in the way that one would have thought he would be," said Hill, noting she was part of a meeting that then-National Security Advisor John Bolton held with Whelan's sister, Elizabeth.
"There was a lot of attention being paid to this and trying to find ways of arranging Paul's release by all different parts of the U.S. government. But, of course, it was a big debate about Victor Bout himself."
Hill added that the Russians were also looking to roil domestic politics in the United States "for just the kinds of things that we're seeing now" — a reference to criticism over the Bout-Griner trade. "I mean this is all part of a political game for the Russian government," she said.
The consideration and rejection of Russia's proposed swap for Whelan during Trump's administration was not known to his family, his siblings said Monday. Elizabeth Whelan told The Detroit News that Trump's statement was "a rather stunning admission."
"I had not known this to be the case, but we have to deal with the consequences of that decision in the here and now, not look back," she said.
The Biden administration said last week that it also sought to bring Whelan home and had proposed multiple different options to the Russians that were rejected.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that it became clear in recent weeks that, while the Russians were willing to reach an agreement to release Griner, they continued to treat Whelan "differently ... with their totally illegitimate (espionage) charge that they levied against" him.
Griner, by contrast, was arrested in February and later convicted on minor drug charges. Both Jean-Pierre and Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that the U.S. didn't have a choice between bringing home Griner or Whelan: It was Griner "or none."
Blinken lamented that Whelan and his family continue to suffer "needlessly and unjustly" and called the charges against Whelan a "sham."
"I wholeheartedly wish that we could have brought on Paul home today on the same plane as Brittney, just as at the time, I wished we could have brought Brittney and Paul home when we secured the release of Trevor Reed back in April. But we will stay at it."
Whelan's brother, David, said after Griner's release that the Biden administration made the right decision to bring her home, "and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to happen."
The Washington Post reported that the State Department for months had pushed for a swap involving Bout that would have included the release of both Whelan and Griner. But Moscow refused, according to the Post, unless the United States secured the release of Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel in Russia's internal spy agency, who is imprisoned in Germany.
"Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's," Biden said at the White House last week. "And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we are not giving up. We will never give up."
On the prospect of bringing Whelan home, U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens told CNN Sunday that "we usually have to keep our cards close to our chest."
"There's always cards. The options are always being evaluated," said Carstens, who was involved with the release of Reed and Huntington Woods journalist Danny Fenster from Myanmar. "And we have the commitment of this president and my office, certainly, to bring Paul Whelan home."
-------
(Detroit News staff writer Craig Mauger contributed to this report.)
