Family of Fort Worth veteran held prisoner in Russia meets with Biden at White House
A spokesperson for the family of Fort Worth native Marine veteran Trevor Reed confirmed President Biden met with Reed’s parents Wednesday about efforts to free their son from wrongful imprisonment in Russia.
The meeting took place in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, hours after Reed’s parents demonstrated outside the White House.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that during the meeting with the Reeds, Biden “reiterated his commitment to continue to work to secure the release of Trevor, Paul Whelan, and other Americans wrongfully held in Russia and elsewhere, and to provide all possible assistance until they and others are free and returned home to their families who are advocating so passionately for their release.”
Following the meeting, the Reeds were optimistic, calling the president “incredibly gracious,” family spokesman Jonathan Franks said on Twitter.
Psaki added that the administration plans to stay in contact with the family.
“We are grateful for their partnership and feedback. We will continue to work to ensure we are communicating and sharing information in a way useful to these families,” Psaki said in a news release. “We understand the pain felt by all of Trevor’s family and friends enduring the nightmare of his absence, which we are committed to bringing to an end.”
Wednesday’s conversation with Biden is the second interaction between him and the Reed family.
When Biden visited Fort Worth in early March, the family stood outside in freezing temperatures with signs asking the president to help them. They hope the United States will negotiate with Russia to release Reed and other prisoners.
Biden called the family that afternoon as his motorcade passed by, promising a future meeting in Washington, D.C., to discuss Reed’s imprisonment further.
After about three weeks of not hearing back from the Biden administration, Reed’s parents protested in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
“President Biden said to us on the phone that as soon as he returned to DC, he would have his staff schedule a meeting with us. ‘Try’ was not part of the conversation,” the family wrote on Twitter. “We know he is extremely busy, but Trevor’s situation grows worse by the day.”
Another tweet followed, adding: “Outside the White House this morning. In the freezing rain, again.”
Biden told a CNN reporter before Wednesday’s sit-down that he wanted to meet with Reed’s parents while they were in Washington.
“I’m going to see if I can get to see them,” Biden told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “They’re good people. I haven’t — We’re trying to work that out.”
Trevor Reed, a Fort Worth native, was visiting his girlfriend when he was arrested in August 2019, just a week before he was supposed to return to Texas. His family says that Russian officials fabricated charges of assaulting an officer to use him as a bargaining chip with the U.S. government.
“Each day, we worry that our son will become the next Otto Warmbier,” the family said in an earlier written statement. “We hope the President will be able to find the time to see us. We need his Administration to stop deliberating and start acting. We believe the President (whom we voted for) is the only person who can save our son’s life. The time is now to bring home Trevor, Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner. As we have said for more than a year, we continue to worry escalating tensions, or rhetoric, could lead to Russian authorities inventing additional false charges against Trevor.”
Reed’s family said the 30-year-old has been moved to “solitary confinement with an injured chest and possible (tuberculosis,)” and that his health has remained an ongoing concern.
“After 10 days in a prison ‘hospital,’ Trevor was sent back to his gulag last week without having received a TB test or any meaningful medical care beyond an x-ray which was taken incorrectly,” a written statement from the family said. “Soon after he returned, Trevor asked authorities at the IK-12 gulag to return to the hospital. Instead, authorities returned him to solitary confinement.”
Reed’s family added the Marine veteran has begun a hunger strike and will be entering his third day on the strike Wednesday.
Reed has been imprisoned in Russia for 957 days.
In early March, his family said they spoke with their son for the first time in over 200 days. They said Reed sounded tired, hopeless and sick. Reed told his family to quit fighting for his freedom and that he felt forgotten.
“I’m never going to give up on my brother because I know he would never give up on me,” Taylor Reed told the Star-Telegram on March 8. “I’m not going to stop fighting until he’s home.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 7:19 AM.
