still sitting here. i was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon. reporter: and despite the administration s earlier efforts to include whelan in the deal, they say russia made it clear it wasn t going to happen. they continue to insist on sham charges of espionage and are treating paul s case differently. this was not a choice of whicha. the choice was one or none. reporter: as the administration says, they re still working on his release. whelan begging president biden to free him, regardless of the cost. my bags were packed. i m ready to go home. i just need an airplane to come and get me. reporter: now brittney griner is on her way back to the united states. a u.s. official tells me she is headed to san antonio. the department of defense has a post isolation support facility there, and we ve seen other americans who have been detained abroad and brought back to th
horrific practice, this practice of detaining, imprisoning, holding hostage innocent americans. we can do both. and we re going to continue down that second path by ensuring that those responsible for this practice face costs, whether that s sanctions, whether that s visa bands as part of a new executive order that president biden signed in recent weeks. we re being very clear with the american people regarding where they should not travel, because they could well face the risk of wrongful detention if they travel there. and importantly, for this building, we re working with countries around the world, nearly 60 countries to establish and to reinforce a norm against this horrible practice, to make clear to countries and nonstate actors around the world that there will be costs, there will be significant repercussions for those who engage in this practice that should have been relegated long ago to the dustbin of history. let s hope that paul whelan comes home soon.
reporter: viktor bout s lawyer told cnn in a swap between his government and brittney griner is fair. since the ambassador to the u.s. visited bout in october at the prisoner in illinois where he was serving his sentence, that bout had been very confident he would be released. each in prison he had swagger. thank you very, very much. joining us now, bill richardson, the former u.s. ambassador to the united nations and the former governor of new mexico. he played a very key role in helping secure the release of brittney griner as well as other americans who have been detained overseas. governor, thank you so much for joining us. i know you have been working closely with brittney griner s family to help get her out. and i know you actually went to russia recently, met with top officials there in that effort. what can you tell us about how this deal came together? all right. well, credit has to go to the biden administration, to john finer, the national security council, and the pre
decision back in april to see trevor reed s release. and we are prepared to be creative and potentially make those difficult decisions once more if it means bringing paul home. democratic senator chris coons said today the more the u.s. makes these kinds of exchanges, the greater the risk, he says, of more americans being detained down the road. is he right? well, look, wolf, we have two imperatives. and i say this speaking from the state department where this is especially meaningful to us. we have an imperative to get wrongfully detained americans home, americans who are wrongfully detained or held hostage anywhere around the world. and we have made good on that imperative when it comes to russia, when it comes to venezuela, when it comes to burma, when it comes to a number of countries over the course of this administration. but we also have a second imperative. and that is an imperative to deter countries, or even nonstate actors like terrorist groups from engaging in this
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