Trump did not care about freeing Michigan native Paul Whelan from Russian jail during his presidency, brother says

The brother of a Michigan native who’s been detained in Russia for years on accusations of being a spy is calling out former President Donald Trump for failing to free his brother while in office, despite Trump saying retroactively that he would have.

Following WNBA star Brittney Griner’s release from Russian jail last week, which was achieved through a U.S.-Russia prisoner swap, all eyes are on Paul Whelan, the Novi native and former Marine who has been imprisoned in the country since 2018. Whelan’s family and the U.S. government say the espionage charges against the man are baseless.

The Biden administration has reportedly been attempting to get 52-year-old Whelan released, but officials say Russia refused to consider including the Michigan man in Griner’s release, calling it a “one or none” deal. Another deal was made earlier this year to release American Trevor Reed from Russian imprisonment -- a deal that also didn’t include Whelan.

The Biden administration has received some backlash, especially from Republicans, over its inability to free Whelan following the release of Griner, who was detained in Russia since February. Among those critics are Trump, who has used his return to Twitter to declare Griner’s release deal “crazy and bad,” and say that he would have gotten Whelan out.

“I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan,” Trump tweeted. “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. I would have gotten Paul out, however, just as I did with a record number of other hostages.”

Trump has received backlash of his own in response to his comments -- including from Whelan’s brother David Whelan, who claims that Trump didn’t care at all about getting his brother released during the last two years of the former president’s term, which ended in 2020.

“Former President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother [Paul Whelan’s] wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by #Russia (zero),” David Whelan tweeted Friday.

The Whelan family has made it clear that they support the prisoner trade that freed Griner, and hold no ill feelings toward for her release. Still, the family is struggling with the pain of once again not being able to welcome Paul Whelan home.

“I think we all realize that the math is not going to work out for Paul to come home anytime soon, unless the U.S. government is able to find concessions,” David Whelan said. “And so I think we aren’t really sure what the way forward is.”

President Joe Biden says his administration “will never give up” on securing Paul Whelan’s release from Russia. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Russia is insisting on “sham charges” against Paul Whelan, and that the decision to make a trade for Griner was “not a choice of which American to bring home.”

“The choice was one or none,” Blinken said last week. “And I wholeheartedly wish that we could have brought Paul home today on the same plane as Brittney.”

Related: Michigan native Paul Whelan remains detained in Russia after Griner swap: ‘We’ve not forgotten’

Whelan was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison. David Whelan says he is worried about his brother and his mental health after being imprisoned on the other side of the world for nearly four years.

“We’ve got to support Paul. We’ve got to help him to survive,” David Whelan said. “It’s his mental health I worry about. How do you keep up surviving mentally in that sort of situation? Not only for days, but months and years. We’re coming up on four years, and I think, unfortunately, it may be years more that he has to face.”

The Whelan family is encouraging the public to send cards or letters to Paul Whelan to help lift his spirits, especially as the holidays approach. The address is shared in the tweet below (or it can be found here).

More: Flashpoint: What is next for Novi’s Paul Whelan, who is still being held as a Russian prisoner