Espionage

Biden: Hopeful, working hard on release of Brittney Griner

Biden: Hopeful, working hard on release of Brittney Griner

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a court room ater a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. A judge in Russia has convicted American basketball star Brittney Griner of drug possession and smuggling and sentenced her to nine years in prison. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)President Biden weighed in on the Brittney Griner case after the American basketball star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian jail on drug smuggling and possession charges. Speaking to the media from the White House Friday, Biden appeared optimistic about securing her release.

Report: Biden to exchange Griner, Whelan for arms dealer Viktor Bout

Report: Biden to exchange Griner, Whelan for arms dealer Viktor Bout

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner sits in a cage at a court room prior to a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 27, 2022. American basketball star Brittney Griner returned Wednesday to a Russian courtroom for her drawn-out trial on drug charges that could bring her 10 years in prison of convicted. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)The Biden administration reportedly plans to exchange two Americans arrested in Russia for a weapons trafficker imprisoned in the US. According to CNN on Wednesday, Biden’s officials have offered Russia to exchange arms-dealer Viktor Bout for US citizens Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner who are facing legal trouble in Moscow.

DOJ ends Trump-era China Initiative program to fight espionage

FILE - Matthew G. Olsen, of Maryland, nominee to be an Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice, attends a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 14, 2021. The Justice Department is ending its China Initiative. The move announced Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, by Assistant Attorney General Olsen amounts to a rebranding of a Trump-era program that was created to crack down on economic espionage by Beijing but that critics said had unfairly scrutinized Chinese professors on the basis of their ethnicity. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)Joe Biden’s Justice Department ended a Trump-era program that countered Chinese espionage against the United States. This week, the DOJ said the 45th president’s China Initiative was not broad enough and claimed it created a climate of fear among Asian Americans.