“I think that, you know, if the Russians are not stupid then they’ll take that offer,” Reed told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”
“I think they would be extremely optimistic. I hope that they would be. I hope that they would be cautiously optimistic because there is a lot that goes into those types of things,” he said of Griner and Whelan. “But I think that they have a really good chance, especially considering the transparency that the administration has used in this.”
Paula Reed, Trevor’s mother, previously told CNN that following his release, her son said, “‘I don’t understand why I’m here and Paul’s not.’ And he said, ‘and I am not doing well now, but as soon as I get better, I’m going to work on bringing Paul home.'”
The families of Whelan, who has been held by Russia for alleged espionage since 2018, and WNBA star Griner, jailed in Moscow for drug possession since February, have urged the White House to secure their release, including via a prisoner exchange if necessary.
Sources told CNN that the plan to trade Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker serving a 25-year US prison sentence, for Whelan and Griner received the backing of President Joe Biden after being under discussion since earlier this year. Biden’s support for the swap overrides opposition from the Department of Justice, which is generally against prisoner trades.
The Russian government has frequently floated Bout as the subject of a potential trade for a number of Americans.
Asked by Tapper why the Biden administration would publicly share details on a possible deal when the prisoner swap involving Reed was largely done in secret, Reed said, “They may be trying to make a point that it is something that’s extremely important to this administration and I’m happy that they are doing that publicly.”
CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Evan Perez and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
