Brittney Griner pleads guilty to drug charges in Russia

WNBA star Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to drug charges and now faces up to 10 years in a Russian prison. 

At Griner’s hearing on Thursday, the 6-foot-9 center was led into the courtroom handcuffed and dressed in a red t-shirt with red pants. She was also seen clutching a water bottle as well as a printed photo of her wife, Cherelle Griner.

‘I’d like to plead guilty, your honor. But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law,’ Griner said, speaking English which was then translated into Russian for the court, according to a Reuters journalist in the courtroom.

‘I’d like to give my testimony later. I need time to prepare,’ she added.

Griner was arrested in February after she was allegedly caught carrying two vape cartridges containing cannabis oil at a Moscow airport. She has been held in custody since then. Her next hearing is on July 14. 

The Texas native went on trial July 1, four and a half months after her arrest. At the time, she was traveling in Russia because, like many WNBA players, Griner plays overseas during the offseason to supplement income. In her case, Griner plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg, just east of the Ural Mountains. 

Elizabeth Rood, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, told reporters after the hearing that she spoke to Griner in the courtroom and shared a letter from President Joe Biden.

‘She’s eating well, she’s able to read books and under the circumstances she’s doing well,’ Rood said of Griner.

‘I would like again to emphasize the commitment of the U.S. government at the very highest level to bring home safely Ms. Griner and all U.S. citizens wrongfully detained as well as the commitment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to care for and protect the interests of all U.S. citizens detained or imprisoned in Russia,’ Rood said.

A spokesperson for Griner’s agent did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.  

Griner is considered by the United States to be wrongfully detained, and her guilty plea could be more of a legal strategy than a truthful admission of wrongdoing. Sources told ESPN that the guilty plea was a strategy aimed at facilitating a prisoner swap that could result in Russian detainees returning to their home country. 

William Pomeranz, an expert on Russian law, previously told ESPN that defendants have little chance of being found innocent at criminal trials in the country. In fact, fewer than 1 percent of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in U.S. courts, acquittals can be overturned.

As Pomeranz explained prior to Thursday’s hearing, since the trail is ‘a foregone conclusion,’ Griner might be able to reduce her sentence by pleading guilty. 

‘Traditionally, the best defense is to admit your guilt and hope you get a lesser sentence,’ Pomeranz said. ‘There’s not a lot of examples of people raising strong defenses and getting acquitted.’

Furthermore, pleading innocent could result in authorities retaliating against her by making her life in a Russian prison more miserable than it already is, experts told ESPN.  

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov bristled at the U.S. description of Briner as ‘wrongfully detained’ and warned that ‘attempts by the American side to make noise in public … don’t help the practical settlement of issues.’

The White House said Biden called Griner’s wife on Wednesday to assure her that he’s doing all he can to obtain the athlete’s release, as soon as possible. They spoke after Biden read a letter from Griner in which she said she feared she’d never return home.

Washington hasn’t made public its strategy in the case and the United States may have little leverage with Moscow because of strong animosity due to Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. The State Department has designated Griner as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator.

There’s been growing pressure on the Biden administration to secure her release, with Griner’s supporters encouraging a prisoner swap – like the one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy. 

But on Thursday, a Russian official said that it is difficult to exchange prisoners with the United States and suggested Washington remain silent about Griner’s fate.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Ryabkov said ‘hype’ around the case does not help, urging the US to cease correspondence with the basketball player.

Meanwhile, Reverend Al Sharpton has promised to fly to Russia to meet with Griner behind bars in what he described as a ‘clergy visit.’ 

‘It’s our intention to go to Russia and seek a clergy visit,’ Sharpton told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. ‘Anybody in any civilized world or any civilized nation can get visits from the clergy.’

He said that Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, had been frustrated trying to set up a phone call with the WNBA player. 

‘We need to go face to face to make sure that she’s all right,’ Sharpton said, adding, ‘We cannot sit by and ignore the fact that she has been marginalized and we cannot explain why. We want to see that she is safe and we want to make sure that the government of the United States maker her a priority.’

Last week, Griner wrote a letter to Biden to in which she pleaded with him to help secure her release. 

‘As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,’ Griner wrote in the letter. 

‘I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American Detainees,’ Griner wrote. ‘Please do all you can to bring us home. I voted for the first time in 2020 and I voted for you.

‘I believe in you. I still have so much good to do with my freedom that you can help restore. I miss my wife! I miss my family! I miss my teammates! It kills me to know they are suffering so much right now. I am grateful for whatever you can do at this moment to get me home.’ 

Her letter came after Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made a phone call to her wife, Cherelle, to ‘reassure her’ they are working to get her released.

‘The President called Cherelle to reassure her that he is working to secure Brittney’s release as soon as possible, as well as the release of Paul Whelan and other US nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage in Russia and around the world,’ the White House said.

The initial session of the trial, which was adjourned until July 7, offered the most extensive public interaction between Griner and reporters since the Phoenix Mercury center and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Police have said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil when detained at the airport.

The state-owned Tass news agency quoted Griner as saying in court that she understood the charges against her. Asked by the judge if she wanted to enter a plea, Griner responded, ‘At this moment, no, your honor. At a later date,’ according to Mediazona, an independent news site known for its extensive coverage of high-profile court cases.

Two witnesses were questioned by the prosecution: an airport customs official, who spoke in open court, and an unidentified witness in a closed session, according to the state news agency RIA-Novosti. The trial was then adjourned, it said, when two other witnesses did not show up.

Alexander Boykov, an attorney for Griner, said outside court that he did not want to comment ‘on the specifics of the case and on the charges’ because it was too early to do so.

Boykov also told RIA-Novosti that she has been exercising and taking walks in the detention area. The Russian website Business FM said that Griner, who smiled at times at reporters, said she wishes she could work out more and that she was struggling because she doesn’t understand Russian. Besides the WNBA’s Mercury, she played in Russia for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

Elizabeth Rood, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was in court and said she spoke with Griner, who ‘is doing as well as can be expected in these difficult circumstances.’

‘The Russian Federation has wrongfully detained Brittney Griner,’ Rood said. ‘The practice of wrongful detention is unacceptable wherever it occurs and is a threat to the safety of everyone traveling, working, and living abroad.’

She said the U.S. government, from its highest levels, ‘is working hard to bring Brittney and all wrongfully detained U.S. nationals home safely.’

At a closed-door preliminary hearing last week, Griner’s detention was extended for another six months, to December 20.

Her case comes at an extraordinarily low point in Moscow-Washington relations. She was arrested less than a week before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, which aggravated already high tensions between the two countries. The U.S. then imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow, and Russia denounced the U.S. for sending weapons to Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday denied politics played a role in Griner’s detention and prosecution.

‘The facts are that the famous athlete was detained in possession of prohibited medication containing narcotic substances,’ Peskov told reporters. ‘In view of what I’ve said, it can’t be politically motivated,’ he added.

Griner’s supporters have encouraged a prisoner swap like the one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.

Russian news media have repeatedly raised speculation that she could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed ‘the Merchant of Death,’ who is serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.

Russia has agitated for Bout’s release for years. But the wide discrepancy between Griner’s case – which involves alleged possession of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil – and Bout’s global dealings in deadly weapons could make such a swap unpalatable to the U.S.

Others have suggested that she could be traded along with Paul Whelan, a former Marine and security director serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that the U.S. has repeatedly described as a setup.