spy. i don t believe that there are charges that would support him being a spy. he spent a lot of time in russia, i understand, over the years. vacations. do you know what it was about russia that he liked, that he enjoyed? well, i don t think it was solely russia. paul has traveled a lot for personal reasons and for business. and i think russia was one of the many locations that he went to. he has friends that he s gathered over the years on social media, some of them are russian, so he s visited them while he s been in russia. when was the last time you spoke to paul, and how did you actually find out he d been detained? it s probably been a month or so, i think before american thanksgiving. and i ve heard from my family they were concerned he was maci missing because he hadn t checked in from a wedding he was attending in moscow. they were expecting they might see pictures or he would text them to find out about some activities that the family was experiencing in michigan. t
went to see whelan in a moscow jail. described to cnn as an unusual move so soon. the arrest comes two weeks after the guilty plea in this country after maria butina, the alleged russian spy, former national security officials wonder if it s kremlin retaliation. i spoke earlier with paul whelan s twin brother david. david, what did ambassador huntsman tell your family today? he spoke with my brother, paul s second brother, and explained that the embassy staff had an opportunity to see paul, and that paul seemed to be healthy under the circumstances, healthy and good condition. and the embassy staff were able to take some requests from paul, some list of things he needed, and just do a general checkup and share with us information about now how we could proceed to the next steps of helping him. are you clear right now as to what exactly the u.s. government state department is doing or can
and share with us information about now how we could proceed to the next steps of helping him. are you clear right now as to what exactly the u.s. government state department is doing or can do to try to free your brother? i think we have a general sense of what they re able to do. certainly we realize they re not there to provide him with legal representation, so that s a step that we re going to be getting started for him to help to identify lawyers and so that he can select one and start to deal with the legal issues that he faces in moscow. but it also allows us to do things like provide him with money or other things so he can have resources in the jail. to the notion that is being put forward by russia that paul was on a, quote, spy mission when he was arrested, i m wondering what your response to that is. i mean, to your knowledge, is your brother has he ever been a spy? no, i don t believe paul is a
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exactly the information was that the russians are claiming they have against whelan. so it s been a while for the russians to come up with any information, and virtually none publicly on what exactly they think he did. but his family was heartened that he was able to have this meeting, finally, again, after five days with the u.s. official. here s some of how they described that meeting. he spoke with my brother. paul s second brother, and explained that the embassy staff had had an opportunity to see paul and that paul seemed to be healthy under the circumstances, healthy and in good condition. and the embassy staff were able to take some requests from paul, some lists of things he needed. and just to do a gentle checkup and share with us information about now how we could proceed to the next steps of helping him. so, now this goes through the russian court system. he may have a lawyer now.