Griner’s fate tangled up with other American held in Russia

WASHINGTON (AP) - WNBA star Brittney Griner is easily the most prominent American locked up by a foreign country. But the Phoenix Mercury player’s case is tangled up with that of another prisoner few Americans have heard of.

Paul Whelan also has been held in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage charges he and the U.S. government say are false. Whelan was left out of a prisoner exchange in April that brought home yet another detainee, Marine veteran Trevor Reed.

That resolution escalates pressure on the Biden administration to avoid a repeat scenario of another one-for-one swap that does not include Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan.