Bolton: Trump Rejected Prisoner Swap For Paul Whelan

The Independent reports:

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has revealed that Donald Trump turned down the chance to secure Paul Whelan’s release two years ago – despite the former president claiming to be outraged over the Biden administration’s deal which freed Brittney Griner but left the US marine in Russian custody.

Mr Bolton, who was the national security adviser under Mr Trump for 17 months from 2018 to 2019, told CBS that the Trump administration had the opportunity to trade Mr Whelan for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in 2018.

“The possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade existed back then and it wasn’t made, for very good reasons having to deal with Viktor Bout,” he said.

Read the full article. There is no record of Trump ever publicly mentioning Whelan’s name while in office.

Reminder that despite being besties with Putin, Trump failed to bring Paul Whelan home for more than 2 years pic.twitter.com/dc6V3ocyiC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2022