Brittney Griner Gives First Public Statements Since Prison Release, Thanks Biden, Vows to ‘Do Whatever I Can To Help’ Bring All Americans Home
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WNBA star Brittney Griner released her first public statements since she was released from a Russian prison after a prisoner swap earlier this month.
Griner was arrested in February on drug smuggling charges for bringing less than one gram of CBD oil into Russia. The White House announced Griner would be freed from Russian custody after government officials conducted a 1-for-1 prisoner swap that sent Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout back to Russia.
Griner landed back in the United States on Friday, December 9th. A week later, she released a statement thanking President Joe Biden and the people who voiced support for her while she was locked up in Russia.
Griner released the statement on her Instagram, along with a picture of her as she stepped off the plane and another photo of her hugging her wife, Cherelle.
Her statement read:
It feels so good to be home! The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone for your help.
I am grateful to each person who advocated for me, especially my wife, Cherelle Griner, my family, Lindsay Kagawa Colas and Casey Wasserman and my whole team at Wasserman, Vince Kozar and the Phoenix Mercury, the players of the WNBA, and my entire WNBA family, Terri Jackson and the WNBPA staff, my Russian legal team Maria Blagovolina and Alex Boykov, the leaders, activists, and grassroots organizations, Gov. Richardson and Mickey Bergman of the Richardson Center, the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, Roger Carstens and the SPEHA team, and of course, a special thank you to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary Blinken and the entire Biden-Harris Administration.
President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too. I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole.
As I transition home to enjoy the holidays with my family, I want to acknowledge and thank the entire PISA staff and medical team at the San Antonio Fort Sam Houston Base. I appreciate the time and care to make sure I was okay and equipped with the tools for this new journey.
I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon.
Love always,
BG #42
