Brittney Griner

Brittney Griner set to stand trial in Russia. Here's what to expect. - The Washington Post

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On the 135th day of Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia on drug charges, the WNBA star’s trial is expected to begin Friday in a courtroom outside of Moscow. However, rather than the promise of a fair trial and a chance at acquittal, U.S. officials and experts on Russia’s legal system expect the proceedings to be a show trial, with a guilty verdict all but certain.

“I’m fairly confident the trial is already rigged,” said Daniel Fried, an expert on Russia who served as an ambassador and top State Department official under three U.S. presidents and is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council. Given the track record of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Fried said, “respect for the rule of law is not something the Kremlin takes seriously.”

Griner, 31, was arrested Feb. 17 at an airport outside of Moscow when Russian customs officials allegedly discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison. A two-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time all-star for the Phoenix Mercury, Griner was traveling to join UMMC Ekaterinburg, the Russian team for which she plays during the WNBA’s offseason.

Following several extensions of Griner’s detainment, the court this week indicated her trial would start Friday. Her lawyer, Alexander Boikov, told Russian media outlets he expected it to last two months.

While Griner’s family and supporters have rallied with increasing intensity in demanding her release, there is little to indicate her pathway to freedom will come via the Russian judicial system, where an estimated 99 percent of criminal cases end in conviction.

“It’s not usually a question of what the verdict will be,” said Thomas Firestone, a former resident legal adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. “It’s more a question of what the sentence will be.”

Firestone, a partner with the Stroock &amp; Stroock &amp; Lavan law firm, said a case such as Griner’s typically would be heard by a single judge, as opposed to a jury, and would be open to the public, though with few available seats. Griner herself would be expected to attend while seated within a secured, glass case.

With U.S.-Russia relations at their most strained since the Cold War, largely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, American officials and experts have viewed developments involving Griner’s case as a series of political rather than legal maneuvers. The U.S. State Department in May declared Griner’s case a “wrongful detainment,” an official classification that shifted oversight of her case to the office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.

“Brittney is for all intents and purposes a political prisoner [whose detainment was] a deeply cynical geopolitical power play with a prominent American,” Rep. Colin Allred (D-Tex.) said this week. “Americans and Brittney’s fans should be prepared for this sham trial and process to result in the Russians finding her guilty and even sentencing her.”

The U.S. government “has determined that Brittney Griner is wrongfully detained and being used as a political pawn,” her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said in a statement. “The negotiation for her immediate release regardless of the legal proceedings should remain a top priority and we expect [President Biden and administration officials] to do everything in their power, right now, to get a deal done to bring her home.”

Candace Buckner: Brittney Griner is still locked upm and out tweets and T-shirts can't free her

On Tuesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters the administration is “actively engaged” in trying to resolve the case and secure Griner’s release.

Experts on Russia have long viewed Griner’s detainment and slog through the courts as ploys to gain leverage for an eventual prisoner swap, and it is widely believed Russia’s target in return for Griner is arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization. In April, despite the strained relations, the United States and Russia agreed to a prisoner swap that freed former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed after nearly three years in Russian custody.

“They’re looking for leverage,” Fried said of Russia’s handling of Griner. “In any case in which there is official [Russian] interest, the system tends to bend toward that official interest. Her fate will be determined politically.”

Little is known publicly of Griner’s condition or treatment at the hands of Russian authorities. In an interview Wednesday on the SiriusXM Radio show “Keepin’ It Real with Al Sharpton,” Griner’s wife, Cherelle, said the couple still had not spoken since the Feb. 17 arrest but that she had received letters from Griner.

“She’s telling me she’s okay,” Cherelle Griner said. “She’s like: ‘I’m okay, babe. I’m hardened. I’m not me right now. When I come home, it’s going to take me a minute to get back to myself. But I’m holding on. I won’t break until I come home. I won’t let them break me.’”

Dave Sheinin has been covering baseball and writing features and enterprise stories for The Washington Post since 1999. In 2019, he was awarded the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting.

Dave Sheinin

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Brittney Griner set to stand trial in Russia. Here's what to expect.

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Brittney Griner’s trial in Russia is set to start. Here’s what to expect.

Russia Griner

Brittney Griner's trial in Russia to start July 1 - The Washington Post

Brittney Griner will go on trial starting Friday in Russia, where she has been detained for more than four months on a drug charge.

Her lawyer, Alexander Boikov, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/sport/brittney-griner-court-hearing-spt-intl/index.html" target="_blank">confirmed the start date</a> to CNN after the handcuffed WNBA star made a brief appearance Monday for a preliminary hearing behind closed doors at a court in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/us-basketball-star-griner-due-in-russian-court/2022/06/27/b8077626-f5ec-11ec-81db-ac07a394a86b_story.html" target="_blank">the Associated Press reported</a>. The court ruled her detention be extended for six months pending her trial, Boikov added. He <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/27/world/europe/brittney-griner-russia-trial-date.html" target="_blank">told the New York Times</a> that he expected Griner’s trial could take up to two months, depending on the court’s workload.

Video from an NPR reporter showed the two-time Olympic gold medal winner <a href="https://twitter.com/cwmiii3/status/1541389209197486080" target=_blank>entering</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/cwmiii3/status/1541401209457856517" target=_blank>leaving</a> court, apparently without commenting, in the custody of officials. She previously had been ordered to remain in pretrial detention until this coming Saturday.

Brian Whitmore, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and an assistant professor at the University of Texas Arlington, characterized Griner’s detainment as “a hostage situation” and her trial as an exercise in “political theater” designed to pressure the U.S. government into a prisoner swap.

“They want to trade her,” Whitmore said, “and they’re going to drag this out until they get something they want.”

Rep. Colin Allred (D-Tex.) said Griner is “for intents and purposes a political prisoner” and her fans should be prepared for a “sham” trial resulting in a guilty verdict and a prison sentence.

“This will all mean nothing, and I will keep working closely with the Biden Administration to bring her, and all Americans detained abroad, home safely,” Allred said in a statement to The Washington Post.

Griner’s court appearance Monday and the upcoming trial, Allred added, “are all theater to give Russia some appearance of having a fair legal system and for her detention to be anything other than a deeply cynical, geo-political power play with a prominent American and to put more pressure on the negotiations for her release.”

The 31-year-old Griner, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was stopped Feb. 17, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at Sheremetyevo International Airport and accused of carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in Russia. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/10/brittney-griner-russia-ummc-ekaterinburg/" target=_blank>Like many WNBA players</a> who head overseas during the offseason, Griner plays in Russia to supplement her income.

The State Department has categorized Griner as “wrongfully detained,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/03/brittney-griner-status-wrongfully-detained/" target=_blank>a strategy shift</a> that indicated it would no longer wait for the case to proceed through the Russian legal system and would take more aggressive steps to negotiate her release. If convicted on charges of large-scale transportation of drugs, she could face 10 years in prison. According to the Associated Press, fewer than 1 percent of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and acquittals can be overturned.

After Monday’s hearing, a State Department spokesperson said: “We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Brittney Griner. The U.S. government will continue to provide appropriate support to Ms. Griner and her family. We will continue to ​press for her release.”

Lindsay Kagawa Colas, Griner’s agent, <a href="https://twitter.com/kagawacolas/status/1541529196979056640" target=_blank>tweeted</a> Monday that the hearing “was administrative in nature and not on the merits. That said, the fact remains that the U.S. Government has determined that Brittney Griner is wrongfully detained and being used as a political pawn. The negotiation for her immediate release regardless of the legal proceedings should remain a top priority and we expect [President Biden and Vice President Harris] to do everything in their power, right now, to get a deal done to bring her home.”

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, told the AP last week that she has “zero trust” in the U.S. government’s handling of the situation after a planned phone call between the two did not occur because of what the State Department said was a “logistical error” involving the U.S. Embassy in Russia.

 U.S. officials meet with team of Brittney Griner, WNBA star detained in Russia

“I find it unacceptable, and I have zero trust in our government right now,” Cherelle Griner said. “If I can’t trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife’s behalf to come home? Because that’s a much bigger ask than to catch a Saturday call.”

As Griner’s case has drawn increased attention, supporters have called for a prisoner swap, similar to the one in April in which Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who had been detained since 2019, was exchanged for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.

Russian news media has speculated that she could be exchanged for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization. However, the disparity in their crimes makes that unlikely to be acceptable to the U.S. government.

“They want Viktor Bout back. He’s connected to the highest levels of Russian government. This is an attempt to get him back,” Whitmore said. “It’s clear the [Biden] administration is under increasing pressure from society, from Griner’s friends and family. It’s not an enviable position here, because it’s clear what the Russian government wants. This is akin to negotiating with a terrorist.”

Cindy Boren arrived at The Post in 2000 as an assignment editor in charge of baseball and NFL/Washington Football Team coverage. She switched to full-time writing, focusing on national sports stories and issues, when she founded The Early Lead blog in 2010. 

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Brittney Griner's trial in Russia to start July 1

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Brittney Griner will stand trial starting July 1 in Russia

Budapest 2022 FINA World Championships: Swimming - Day 8

Staff

Torri Huske, U.S. swimming medals at world championships in Budapest - The Washington Post

It was fitting that the final race on the final day of the world swimming championships at Duna Arena in Budapest ended with an American hand reaching the wall first. Minutes later, four more gold medals were hung from the necks of four American women, the victorious 4x100-meter medley relay team, bringing an official end to a historically dominating performance for Team USA.

The gold in the women’s medley relay Saturday was the Americans’ 17th of the meet and their 45th overall medal — obliterating their previous record of 38 in 2017. Australia had the second-most medals (17) and second-most golds (6).

“It was an incredible eight days with this team,” veteran backstroker Ryan Murphy, one of Team USA’s captains in Budapest, told reporters. “We just kind of put our heads down, handled business, and we looked up at the end of the meet, and it was, at least by one metric, our most successful team ever. That’s something that’s really special. That’s not one person. That’s not one performance. That’s the collective as a whole.”

Nobody contributed more hardware to Team USA’s record haul than Arlington native Torri Huske, whose blistering butterfly leg (56.67 seconds) Saturday allowed the American medley relay team to pull away from runner-up Australia for the gold. For Huske, 19, the gold medal was her third of the meet and her sixth medal overall, the most of any swimmer.

Huske, a silver medalist in the women’s medley relay at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, also smashed two American records in Budapest this week, in both the 50-meter and 100-meter butterfly, the latter of which resulted in her lone individual gold of the meet.

With gold in 800, Katie Ledecky completes a 4-for-4 world championships

“I’m pretty tired,” Huske, a rising sophomore at Stanford, told reporters after the medley relay. “I definitely felt it on the first half of the race, and I was like, ‘That’s not supposed to be happening.’ But I knew I wasn’t just swimming for myself, so I tried my best. I think that got me through the race.”

In perhaps the strangest moment of the meet, American backstroker Justin Ress appeared to take gold in the 50 back with a time of 24.12 only to be disqualified for an illegal underwater touch at the wall. That put American teammate Hunter Armstrong (24.14) at the top of the podium, but after the medal ceremony the DQ was reversed under protest from Team USA officials, and Ress was declared the winner.

Later, in a private ceremony out of sight of the public, Armstrong took the gold medal from his own neck and placed it around Ress’s.

Team USA’s record medal haul came without the services of superstar sprinter Caeleb Dressel for most of the meet. Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, earned two golds early in Budapest but withdrew for unspecified medical reasons, leaving as many as six additional medals on the table.

High-profile absences were a running theme throughout the world championships as many of the top names in the sport stayed away for varying reasons. Russia was banned by FINA, swimming’s international governing body, because of the war in Ukraine. Many top Australians and Canadians skipped worlds in favor of next month’s Commonwealth Games, and other swimmers bowed out with injuries or illnesses.

Dave Sheinin

Washington, D.C.

Brittney Griner’s trial in Russia is set to start. Here’s what to expect.

Brittney Griner will stand trial starting July 1 in Russia

U.S. swimming’s ‘most successful team ever’ caps dominant week

With gold in 800, Katie Ledecky completes a 4-for-4 world championships

Caeleb Dressel withdraws from swimming world championships with medical issue

Still golden: Katie Ledecky continues her dominance in 1,500 meters

Katie Ledecky adds another 400 gold, with a rival absent and a new one present

Katie Ledecky is 25 and getting faster, still reaching for another wall

In athletes’ forceful response to Uvalde, advocates see ‘a tipping point’

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus breaks Katie Ledecky’s 400 freestyle record