Judging Freedom - Brittney Griner is sentenced to NINE years in Russian prison

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

Brittney Griner is sentenced to NINE years in Russian prison for smuggling cannabis vape pen through airport: Biden says she's been 'wrongfully detained' and demands she is 'released immediately https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti... #Griner #Biden #russia #guiltySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, August 4th, 2022. It's about five after three in the afternoon here on the East Coast of the United States. Just a few hours ago, Brittany Greiner, the superstar WNBA player, and also a player, as you well know now, for a Russian team, was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison camp for possessing cannabis oil in her suitcase as she was leaving Russia. The complaint, of course, is it political or not? Who knows? The Russian government is interested in detaining Americans so that they can be traded for Russians that are detained here in the United States. But cannabis oil is criminal to possess in Russia. By the way, it's criminal to possess in the United States, but the feds don't enforce that. And it's lawful in most states in the union. The baggage people or the customs people

just tore through her briefcase, and they found the cannabis oil there. This is back in February. Here we are in August. She's been locked up since then. She didn't have a trial as such. She pleaded guilty, and then there was a trial on what the sentence should be. This is different from the American system, where in the American system, with the exception of the death penalty, the jury doesn't sentence, the judge does. In the Russian system, the jury sentences. So she did have a jury trial on what the penalty should be since she was caught red-handed with the stuff that caught her on the examination of the suitcase was on tape. So there really was no defense to the fact that she had it unless she was going to argue that somebody put it in there when she wasn't looking, and there was no evidence of that. President Biden, when he learned of the sentence of Brittany Griner, made what I thought was an excellent statement. We'll put it on the screen for you. It's a little long. Take your time and read through it. I'm going to read the highlighted portions of what

the president said. Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittany. It's unacceptable. And I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates. And then, of course, he goes on to say that his administration will do whatever it can. Well, there is another American ex-intelligence and ex-Marine. I know my Marine friends are going to tell me there's no such thing as an ex-Marine. Okay. A formerly active duty Marine who's also being detained unfairly for a number of years. He's been accused of espionage.

And, of course, the United States has its assortment of Russian spies and arms dealers, the most prominent of which is a guy named Viktor Bout, B-O-U-T-E. The Russians desperately want Viktor Bout returned. I believe as we speak, the State Department and the Russian foreign ministry are negotiating for a return. What happened to Brittany is terribly unfair, but what she did was stupid. I mean, you can't take a chance with a controlled, dangerous substance in a foreign country, particularly an authoritarian country. I am a fan of Brittany. She's a great basketball player. I hope she's freed, and I wish her well, and I can't imagine she's going to go back to Russia under any circumstances again. And though I've been a harsh critic of the Biden administration and its

State Department particularly, I cheer them on. I want them to cut a deal. Remember the old East German deals where we would swap spies and it would take place under cover of darkness with just a couple of flashlights showing on a bridge near Checkpoint Charlie between East Berlin and West Berlin. It's not quite that dramatic anymore, but there's a little bit of drama to it to make sure that the person being sent to the U.S. truly is Brittany Greiner and the Marine, and the person being returned to Russia truly is this character, Victor Bout. Hopefully, we will see that on Fox and CNN and MSNBC and the major television networks if the Russians and the Americans allow it to be filmed. But more importantly, is that people not be used as pawns and when they are, that the government recognize it and undo the damage. Good job, Uncle Joe.

It's a good start to a good job. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.