U.S. Pulls Off Trade Of The Century – Swaps Another Prisoner For American Hero
(ReliableNews.org) – Former US Marine Trevor Reed touched down at Kelly Field Airport in San Antonio, Texas on April 28, at 12:33 a.m. CT. His return to American soil concluded a nearly three-year-long international ordeal. How it ended shocked many people.
On Wednesday, April 27, the US and Russia announced they’d conducted a prisoner swap. President Joe Biden’s administration traded Russian Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was serving 20 years in a Connecticut prison for trying to smuggle cocaine into America, for Reed. Joey Reed, the former Marine’s dad, said the countries conducted the prisoner swap in Turkey. He described it to ABC News as being “like a movie.”
After spending nearly three years in a Russian prison, former Marine Trevor Reed returns home. @sramosABC has the details on the dramatic prisoner swap. https://t.co/R7IzFCS6AB pic.twitter.com/Tk1sOQZWDf
— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 29, 2022
Russia detained Reed in August 2019 for allegedly assaulting a police officer. The veteran was in the country visiting his girlfriend at the time. In 2020, he went to trial and was sentenced to nine years in prison. At the time, the US government called it the “theater of the absurd.”
Amb Sullivan: “Today, US citizen Trevor Reed was convicted and sentenced to 9 years in a Russian prison based on evidence so ridiculous that even the judge laughed in court. This was theater of the absurd.” @mfa_russia
— Jason P. Rebholz (@USEmbRuPress) July 30, 2020
Reed, a Texas resident, met with Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) upon his arrival home. The GOP congressman had been lobbying for his release for over a year.
This is the moment we have all been praying for. WELCOME HOME, Trevor Reed! 🇺🇸 @freetrevorreed pic.twitter.com/GooLSxSfsk
— Rep. August Pfluger (@RepPfluger) April 28, 2022
Now that Reed is back home, the US is continuing its work to try and bring home WNBA player Brittney Griner and American executive Paul Whelan.
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