"Celebrity & Wealth": Ex-Marine Paul Whelan's Sister Livid After Biden Reaches Out To Griner's Famil

[Hoodat]

"Celebrity & Wealth": Ex-Marine Paul Whelan's Sister Livid After Biden Reaches Out To Griner's Family

TYLER DURDEN  |  THURSDAY, JUL 07, 2022 - 10:07 AM  |  Update 1:05 PM

Given WNBA star Brittney Griner's high-profile status and media visibility, President Joe Biden is under mounting pressure to bring her home, after on Thursday she pleaded guilty in a Russian court to drug charges after getting caught with Cannabis cartridges while going through a Moscow airport in February, just days prior to the Ukraine invasion.

But a top Russian diplomat disagrees that the highly covered court case is a 'big deal'. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Thursday dismissed what he called "hype" surrounding Griner's detention in Russian jail. "The American side’s attempts to foment hype and make noise in the public environment are understandable, but they don’t help to practically resolve issues,” Ryabkov told reporters at the courthouse. Washington has slammed what it's characterized as the Kremlin seeking to use a prominent US citizen as a political pawn amid the backdrop of war.

But Paul Whelan's family also appears to agree that the Griner case is being unfairly prioritized by the White House. This after, as the The Hill and others reported, there was "a conversation between President Biden, Vice President Harris and Cherelle Griner, Brittany Griner’s wife, on Wednesday." Whelan, who is a US Marine veteran, has been in Russian detention for over three years. He was arrested in Moscow in 2018 on charges of "carrying out an act of espionage," and sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison. His family is livid after news of the Biden phone call with Griner's family, with Whelan's sister saying she's "crushed" by lack of the same or similar attention given to Whelan . . .

https://twitter.com/elizabethwhelan/status/1544726351361544192

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/wnba-player-pleads-guilty-drug-charges-russian-court

[Sighlass]

Russia can keep her (Griner's) high maintainance butt... She knew the risks.

[Kamaji]

Russia can keep her (Griner's) high maintainance butt... She knew the risks.

[SZonian]

"...to use a prominent US citizen..."

Up until this incident, I had never heard of her nor did I care to.

She is a nobody trying to leverage her "special" status in a country that doesn't care...I'm rather enjoying watching her and others endure this dose of reality.

The Whelan story on the other hand does give one pause and absolutely demonstrates how, as one prior presidential candidate put it, "there are 2 Americas".

[PeteS in CA]

Griner hates America, travelled to Russia and broke Russian law, and now wants America to arm-twist Russia into releasing her? She needs to go build a highway near the Kolyma River, AFAIC. You know, up close and personal with Soviet history.

[goatprairie]

Griner hates America, travelled to Russia and broke Russian law, and now wants America to arm-twist Russia into releasing her? She needs to go build a highway near the Kolyma River, AFAIC. You know, up close and personal with Soviet history.

She needs to attack Russia for their long history of slavery. 
Actually, serfdom was about as bad as slavery for many Russian peasants before it was abolished by Emperor Alexander I in 1861. But I doubt Griner and others like her care much about the problems of people who don't look like her.