Paul Whelan's Family Feels Betrayed by U.S. as Marine Still in Russian Jail

Paul Whelan's family recently said they felt betrayed by the U.S. as the former Marine remains detained in Russia, despite the recent prisoner swap that resulted in the release of Trevor Reed from Russian detainment.

While speaking with Newsweek on Friday, Paul Whelan's sister, Elizabeth, said her family "felt a deep sense of betrayal and hurt," from the U.S. government after they were not informed that their brother was not included in the recent prison swap.

The comments by Whelan's family come shortly after former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was released from detainment in Russia following a prisoner swap with the U.S. Reed was previously sentenced to nine years in prison after he was convicted by a Russian court of endangering and assaulting a Russian police officer in 2019.

In a statement following the release of Reed, President Joe Biden said, "We won't stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends."

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was first arrested in Moscow in 2018 after traveling to Russia for a wedding. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Russian court on espionage charges. However, Whelan and his family have maintained that the charges levied against him are false and that Russian authorities never provided credible evidence to accuse him of espionage.

While Elizabeth Whelan told Newsweek that she was "thrilled" to hear of Reed's release, she criticized recent comments from Biden who said that the plan to bring Reed home was raised "three months ago."

She explained that she was disappointed in the U.S. government for not informing her earlier that her brother was not included in the negotiations, despite weekly calls the Whelan family has with the State Department's Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.

"It's extraordinary to me...that the people we speak with on a weekly basis could not be truthful with us if this was something that was months in planning," Whelan said. "We were given the impression that work was underway to bring Paul and Trevor home and that seems not to have been the case. It seems a decision was made months ago to only concentrate on Trevor and it would have been really great if people could have been truthful to us."

Paul's brother, David, also made similar comments in a statement sent to Newsweek.

"But if, as it turns out, this exchange of Trevor Reed and Konstantin Yaroshenko - a person the Russian government and state media have floated as a concession they might release Paul for - has been months in the making, why did our family not understand that efforts were not including Paul, if only to manage his expectations?" David said.

Elizabeth also said that her trust with the people they have been working with in the U.S. government "is at an all-time low," while calling on the Biden administration to do more in response to "wrongful detention."

"We are in a state of despair right now about Paul, of course, but we're not the only family going through this," she said. "I believe it is time for the U.S. government as a whole to figure out what they're gonna do about wrongful detention. This business of cherry picking the cases, which is what [former President Donald] Trump did as well, is what Biden appears to be doing now...going for the low-hanging fruit, bringing home who they can for the political win but not solving the problem overall."

"It just means that more Americans will be taken," she added.

A White House official told Newsweek that the State Department's National Security team remains in constant contact with the Whelan family. The official also noted that they will continue to work to bring Paul Whelan home.

Newsweek reached out to the State Department for comment.

Update 4/29/22, 4:40 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include remarks from a White House official.