The letter arrived sooner or later after a letter to Biden from the Phoenix Mercury heart, handwritten from her cell, was delivered to the White House on Independence Day. In Griner’s letter, excerpts of which have been launched by her brokers, she wrote, “I’m terrified I might be here forever,” and requested Biden to do “whatever you can do at this moment to get me home.”
Asked for touch upon Griner’s letter to Biden, Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, informed The Washington Post: “[Biden’s] team is in regular contact with Brittney’s family and we will continue to work to support her family. … The U.S. government continues to work aggressively — using every available means — to bring her home.”
Griner, 31, was arrested in February at Sheremetyevo International Airport exterior Moscow when customs officers allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her baggage. At the time, she was returning to the nation to be part of UMMC Ekaterinburg, the Russian group for which she performs in the course of the WNBA offseason. In early May, the State Department declared Griner’s case a “wrongful detainment,” an official classification that elevated it to the workplace of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.
Her trial started Friday and is predicted to proceed Thursday; Griner has but to enter a plea. She is predicted to be discovered responsible — an estimated 99 p.c of Russian legal trials finish in responsible verdicts — and will face up to 10 years in jail.
Following Friday’s listening to, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Elizabeth Rood, who was in attendance, mentioned in an announcement that U.S. officers have been working “at the highest levels” to bring Griner home. After having the ability to converse with Griner within the courtroom, Rood mentioned, “She is doing as well as expected under these difficult circumstances.”
Among the women who signed the letter delivered Tuesday have been Bernice King, CEO of the King Center and the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.; actress Anika Noni Rose; singer Ledisi; tv hosts Shaun Robinson and Sunny Hostin; former appearing chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile; former CEO of Black Entertainment Television Debra L. Lee; activist and former NAACP president Hazel Dukes; University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach and three-time Olympic gold medalist Dawn Staley; and quite a few gamers, coaches and executives from the WNBA.
“The letter is support — support from a group of Black women who are trying to save another Black woman. It’s as simple as that,” Staley mentioned in a phone interview Tuesday. “… I think about Brittney throughout the entire day, every day. I try to put myself in her shoes, and I’d want somebody fighting for me — people who won’t shut up.”
With little hope for an acquittal, Griner’s supporters in current weeks have sought to ramp up public stress on the Biden administration to safe her launch by diplomatic channels, an effort sophisticated by heightened tensions between the United States and Russia because the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.
But in Tuesday’s letter, Griner’s supporters demanded extra urgency: “More than prioritizing her immediate return in word,” it mentioned, “you must do so in deed and make a deal to bring Brittney home.”
“Enough is enough. I don’t want to count days anymore,” mentioned Terri Jackson, govt director of the WNBA gamers union and one of many organizers of the letter, referring to the truth that Tuesday represented Griner’s 138th day of imprisonment. Biden and Harris, she added, have been “elected by constituents who look very much like my membership. This letter will be powerful. This letter is going to make them pay attention.”
The letter, organized by the collective community #WinWithBlackWomen, additionally urged Biden and/or Harris to meet with Griner’s spouse, Cherelle, and identified that an organized phone name between the Griners final month failed as a result of there was nobody staffing the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to patch by the decision — a failing the State Department referred to as “a logistical error.”
“I will not be quiet anymore,” Cherelle Griner mentioned Tuesday on “CBS Mornings.” “I will find that balance of harm versus help in pushing our government to do everything that’s possible. [Administration officials] are not moving. They are not doing anything. My wife is struggling, and we have to help her.”
Speculation in Russian state media has urged a prisoner swap involving Griner and Viktor Bout, a Russian arms seller serving a 25-year sentence for conspiracy to kill U.S. residents and offering support to a terrorist group. But U.S. officers haven’t commented on the probability of such a swap. In April, U.S. officers secured the discharge of former Marine Trevor Reed from Russia by a prisoner swap.
“We need to do whatever is necessary to get Brittney back on American soil,” Staley mentioned. “Whatever that is.”
Also Tuesday, Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of National Action Network, referred to as on Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to organize a go to from him and different religion leaders to Griner in Russia.
“After speaking with her wife last week, I am deeply concerned for Brittney Griner’s physical, mental and spiritual well-being,” Sharpton mentioned in an announcement. “Today I’m urging [the administration] to bring myself and fellow faith leaders to Russia immediately so we can pray over Brittney in prison. She deserves to see the United States is doing something for her, so she can find the strength as this show trial goes on. … Four months is too long for this to have gone on, and I hope the president acts on her pleas to come home.”