Of course, a prisoner swap. so there was a russian who was here in u.s. prison who was released out of prison. he was charged with convictions to conspire to import cocaine, so that s significant the united states is letting him off but president biden in his statement on trevor reed s release earlier today noted that the negotiations that allowed us to bring trevor reed home required difficult decisions that i do not take lightly. and he went on to talk about the voices of trevor reed s parents, how much they worried about his health, missed presence and said he was delighted to be able to share the good news with them about trevor s freedom. we know trevor reed is on his way back here to the united states. kylie, thank you so much for laying it out for us. bill richardson, former u.s. ambassador to the united nations and of course, he s been involved in many negotiations over detained americans overseas. ambassador, you were involved in
Same time like you see in the movies. mostly, we re just glad he s on his way home but they also have a doctor on the plane. so he s getting checked out and that was our main concern. reporter: now, of course, this comes as the ukraine war rages on. and u.s. officials really, over the last few months and trevor reed s family, didn t have a whole lot of optimism when it came to u.s./russia relations but according to a senior administration officials, these discreet conversations to secure trevor reed s release were limited. they had nothing else to do with other bilateral or multilateral diplomatic matters and they will not impact the biden administration s approach to the war in ukraine. listen to what the state department s spokesperson said about that earlier this morning on cnn. being very clear about this. in our engagement with the russians, in order to seek the release of trevor reed, there was one issue and one issue discussed. it was the case of trevor reed. now, we sho
Right, so it was significant they don t believe he did anything, the russians were charging him with. another thing to note with trevor reed is he experienced some pretty significant health problems while he was detained in russia. he had covid-19. in 2021. he also had symptoms of tuberculosis and according to his family, that has been really on their minds. that s been a major concern for them. listen to what his family said earlier today on cnn about what it has been like over the last few days and over the last few hours as they have received this news. they have moved him to another prison. they have moved him to a moscow prison this week. didn t know that. with the same prison that i think paul whelan was held for a long time. laportevo prison and flew him from there to turkey, and then quickly told us the american plane pulled up next to the russian plane and both at the
Trafficker. in jail for three years after russia accused him of assaulting a police officer. it would be a big deal at any time but it s extraordinary because it s happening amid russia s bloody war in ukraine. president biden in his statement confirming that reed was on his way home. said that the negotiations that allowed us to bring trevor home require difficult decisions that i do not take lightly. we also know that reed s family, they were becoming increasingly worried about his health. saying that he d been denied proper medical treatment while in prison. cnn s kylie atwolie atwood is l the state department with us. what are the details you re picking up? reporter: senior administration officials say this was months in the making but over the last few days, that s when these intense talks with russia really took root that resulted, of course, in this prisoner exchange with trevor reed. we should note that he was detained in russia in 2019, and according to the u.s. ambassador t
This investigation. first and foremost, your reaction. enormously pleased. but credit should go to the president who personally was involved in this. and the reed family, yes, the day before the invasion, i was in moscow talking to russian officials about trevor reed and y yurshenko. my organization, we don t work for the government but we work for the families. and this is good news because what we re seeing here, despite the enormous tension in the relationship, the administration is correct. it was a humanitarian release that maybe will pave the way for other releases. we have paul whelan, another marine in russia. we have brittany griner, the basketball player. this was done discreetly.