Trump Admits Rejecting Russian Offer To Trade Whelan

The Daily Beast reports:

Speaking to Face The Nation on Sunday, former National Security Council Russia specialist Fiona Hill confirmed that Russia asked the Trump administration to swap Bout and another Russian – drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko – for Whelan following his 2018 arrest. Hill said Russia raised the issue “many times.”

The pair were “put on the table by the Russians,” Hill said, and made it “very clear that they had every intent of trying to swap Americans that had been wrongfully detained for individuals in the United States custody who were there for pretty good reasons.”

Read the full article. In an apparent reaction to Hill’s interview, last night Trump made the post below on Truth Social.

Trump confirms he turned down a Bout-Whelan prisoner swap. Oddly, he says “I would have gotten Paul out” but didn’t for two years of his administration. pic.twitter.com/jeN0YuEJ6H

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 12, 2022