news. reporter: but the biden administration is also playing defense. it s made us weaker. it s made putin stronger, and it s made americans more vulnerable. reporter: amid criticism of the deal privately from doj officials and publicly from republican lawmakers. that deal released notorious arms trafficker viktor bout, who a senior defense official says could go right back to arms trafficking. some fear he could help funnel weapons into the ukraine battlefield. nobody is doing back flips that mr. bout is back on the street here. i think it speaks to our understanding of our ability to defend our national interest that the president was able to make this deal. reporter: and though the administration was not able to free fellow u.s. citizen paul whelan from russian detention in exchange, a senior administration official says the u.s. is now considering new offers to russia that could help bring whelan home. i don t understand why i m still sitting here. reporter: and despi
the u.s., despite being held in difficult conditions of a russian penal colony. she s on the ground. stop it. yeah, she s on the ground. reporter: the white house releasing this new video of griner s wife and president biden moments after the prisoner exchange in abu dhabi. such a good day! reporter: coaches and players celebrate the release of one of their own. i think it is really a testament to their hard work, their energy, their commitment to keeping her name in the news. it s made us weaker, it s made putin stronger and it s made americans more vulnerable. reporter: amid criticism of the deal privately from doj officials and publicly from republican lawmakers. that deal released notorious arms trafficker viktor bout, who a senior official says could go right back to trafficking. some way he could funnel weapons into the ukraine battlefield.
yes. reporter: the biden administration bringing her home in a prisoner swap months in the making. she is safe. she is on a plane. she is on her way home. after months of being unjustly detained in russia, held under intolerable circumstances. reporter: the president and griner s wife cherelle speaking to brittney, who is on her way back to the united states. today is a happy day for me and my family. i m going smile right now. reporter: griner s team, the phoenix mercury tweeting no more days. she s coming home. according to senior administration officials, the deal came together in just the last two days when griner was moved from the penal colony where she had been serving a nine-year sentence. the officials describing griner as extremely upbeat and all smiles. but griner s release did not come cheaply. the u.s. exchanging arms trafficker victor bout, the so-called merchant of death. he was serving a 25-year prison
support. this is a happy day for me and my family. i m going to smile right now. a big smile from cherelle griner. first, let s bring in kylie atwood, and phil mattingly. kylie, from all of the reporting we ve gathered, these negotiations just wrapped up in the last 48 hours. walk us through what happened. that s exactly right. this has been months in the work. you ll remember that cnn reported over the summer, the united states, the biden administration put an offer on the table for both paul whelan and brittney griner, as part of that trading viktor bout, this convicted arms trafficker, but what they ended up wasn t that initial proposal. it s a different one, with paul whelan remaining in russia, and