U.S. officials met with WNBA star Brittney Griner jailed in Russia

Officials from the U.S. embassy in Moscow have met with jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner, the Biden administration announced Thursday.

They reported that Ms. Griner “is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who briefed reporters traveling with the president to New Mexico aboard Air Force One. 

The U.S. says she is being wrongly detained in Russia.

Ms. Griner was arrested at the Moscow airport in February after officials found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, which she said she used for medical purposes.

Ms. Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in August for smuggling drugs with criminal intent.

A Russian court denied her appeal of the sentence in October.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in late July that the administration had made an offer to secure the release of Ms. Griner and Paul Whelan, a former marine being held by Russia on espionage charges.

The Biden administration offered to exchange convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout in exchange for the two Americans. Bout is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted in 2011.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in September that that offer had been ignored by the Kremlin.