this morning the wnba star brittney griner is in a moscow court for her first trial hearing, this after russian authorities accused her of smuggling drugs into the country. griner has already spent the last 130 days in a russian jail. officials have now extended her detention for six months pending the outcome of this trial. we should note the state department has said griner has been, quote, wrongfully detained. last night, cnn s abby phillip sat down with griner s wife for an exclusive interview. you ll hear part of that conversation in just a moment. back at home, though, new developments in the january 6th investigation. sources tell cnn that someone tried to influence the testimony of cassidy hutchinson, the former trump white house aide who shared damning details about what the former president was doing as the capitol attack unfolded. we ll have much more on that just ahead. we begin, though, this morning, in moscow. cnn s senior international correspondent frederik
insurrection committee. sources tell cnn that cassidy hutchinson has informed the january 6th committee that she was contacted by someone trying to influence what she would testify to. liz cheney presented evidence that member of donald trump s inner circle may have engaged in witness tampering. this morning the new york time s reporting trump s political organization and allies have paid for or promised to pay witnesses legal fees. let s begin with cnn caitlin on all of this live. what s the latest? the house select committee is now grappling with the possibility that there s been witness intimidation or even tampering behind the scenes. kate, the committee vice chair said they were asking witnesses if anyone was trying the influence testimony and she said two witnesses said yes. they received calls from someone they knew. we have confirmed that one of these people on the receiving end of up with of these calls was cassidy hutchinson. she isn t just any witness. she is now
what do you think are the chances you can get an acquittal? i would not comment. reporter: she was detained on february 17th. prosecutors claiming she was carrying two vaping cartridges with about .07 oil a crime in russia that can carry a sentence of up to ten years in praise colony. the u.s. considers her being rong wrongfully detained. wrongful detention is unacceptable where ever it occurs. the united states government, at the very high e est levels is working hard to bring mi miss griner as well as all wrongfully detained u.s. citizens safely home. reporter: her trial starts as tensions between the u.s. and russia have reached a boiling point. not just over rusrussia s invas of ukraine. the u.s. is calling for immediate release of former marine paul whelan who was sentenced to sf years. they also said the trial was not political. the facts say a prominent athlete was detained in possession of prohibits substances that contained drugs. reporter: after about
deal to release grbrittney grin and paul whelan. jennifer, what can you tell us about this offer? that s right, we have learned that the biden administration is prepare to send victor boot, this convicted russian arms dealer back to russia as part of a deal to try to bringwhelan ho. boot is currently serving a 25 year prison sentence. secretary of state antony blinken publicly announced yesterday that the administration has offered a, quote, substantial proposal to moscow to try to get these two wrongfully detained americans back home. blinken did not go in to specifics about what was in the proposal, but he did say it has been on the table for weeks now and that it has the direct backing and sign jooff of joe biden. prisoner swaps do require the president to signoff. so this is a significant signal. prisoner swaps are generally quite controversial in the administration and other administrations have generally avoided using them because there is a fear that other government
house have gotten ahead and put this offer on the table. i think that s something that the white house should continue to do, not just for paul and brittney, but for, you know, all americans who are wrongfully detained. so there is over 65 americans at least who are wrongfully detained, and i hope the administration continues to do that. in the case of your release, trevor, i mean, we didn t know that you were coming home until you were well out of russian air space. it went from you were detained and there were efforts to get you out, but all of a sudden it was happening. why do you think that this is being done differently? i think maybe that could signal a change in policy in the administration, maybe they re going to be, you know, more open to doing exchanges, it could be the fact that they re trying to show, you know, how important it is to this administration to get this done. it could be aye lot of things, m not an expert at that, but i think it is a good sign for