Preet Bharara Warns Biden Admin to Be Wary After Swapping Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner: This Was a ‘Dangerous Man’

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara warned the Biden administration to recognize the possible dangers of the prisoner swap between international arms dealer Viktor Bout and WNBA star Brittney Griner.

Bharara joined Chuck Todd on Meet The Press to discuss the U.S.’s exchange with the Russians to secure Griner’s freedom. Bharara was the attorney who led the prosecution against Bout years ago, so even though he told Todd he was happy that Griner is free, he focused on the reasons why he had Bout convicted as the so-called “merchant of death.”

Look, everyone is happy. If you’re an American — or not an American — that Brittney Griner, who was unfairly, illegitimately detained in Russia, is back home with her family. We’re happy for her, happy for her family. At the same time, you might imagine that not as just a general prosecutor, but the prosecutor who oversaw the prosecution and conviction of Viktor Bout has a view about how dangerous a person he was. As you said, [he was] some who’s convicted at trial by a unanimous jury of conspiracy to kill Americans. He was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He’s on tape with confidential informants, planning to sell hundreds of surface-to-air missiles to the FARC, also sell 30,000 AK-47s to the FARC for the stated purpose of shooting down American helicopters in Colombia. So he was a dangerous man then.

Bharara concluded with his view that people can be happy with Griner’s release from Russian prison, but still be concerned about Bout’s weapons trafficking capabilities while Russia’s war against Ukraine is ongoing. He called the trade “assymetric” while declining to say whether Bout’s early release would hurt morale at the Justice Department.

Watch above via NBC.