- Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called Cherelle Griner, the wife of Brittney Griner.
- The pair assured Griner's family that the White House is doing everything it can to secure Griner's release.
- Biden also read part of his draft response to Brittney Griner's emotional plea to him.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called Cherelle Griner, the wife of Brittney Griner, on Wednesday to reassure the WNBA star's family that the US is doing everything it can to get Griner out of Russia.
"The President called Cherelle to reassure her that he is working to secure Brittney's release as soon as possible, as well as the release of Paul Whelan and other U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage in Russia and around the world," the White House said in a statement about the call.
Biden also read Cherelle Griner part of a draft he's written in response to Griner's letter from earlier this week. The imprisoned star made an emotional plea for the president to do more to secure her release. Griner contrasted her incarceration with the freedom that flows from the Fourth of July.
"On the 4th of July, our family normally honors the service of those who fought for our freedom including my father who is a Vietnam War Veteran," the Phoenix Mercury star wrote to Biden, according to an excerpt shared with the media. "It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year."
The seven-time WNBA All-Star has been in Russian jail since mid-February after local officials claimed that they found vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport. The urgency of calls for Griner's safe return have only increased since her trial began at the start of the month.
Before Wednesday's call, Cherelle repeatedly lamented the fact that she still had not spoken directly to Biden — the individual best suited to secure the two-time Olympic gold medalist's freedom — months into her wife's detainment. But since her initial arrest, Griner has been caught in the middle of rapidly deteriorating US-Russian relations following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The two nations have exchanged tit-for-tat sanctions for years, which has only escalated in the face of a Western bloc opposed to the war. In a sign of how bad things are, just last week the Kremlin slapped sanctions on first lady Jill Biden and the first couple's daughter, Ashley.
With the 6-foot-9 superstar's imprisonment drawing international attention, the world will be watching as Griner's hearings — which experts tell Insider is nothing more than a "show trial" with a "predetermined" outcome — proceed this week. She faces up to 10 years in prison.