Reverend Al Sharpton wants the basketball player to return to the US. There is a time and a place for it.
A source told ABC News on Saturday that former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is going to travel to Russia to try to find a solution to the case of the imprisoned basketball player.
He is going to Moscow in the next couple of weeks.
Richardson has a long history of working to free Americans who have been wrongly imprisoned. He was involved in the prisoner exchange that resulted in the release of a former US Marine.
Richardson is representing the family of a former Marine who was held by Russia for three and a half years.
Since mid-February, when she was stopped at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, she has been in a Russian jail. She told the judge that she had brought the oil into Russia accidentally and asked for mercy.
According to sources, the guilty plea was a strategy to help facilitate a prisoner swap that could bring her home, and that she was going to be acquitted. If he is found guilty of large-scale transportation of drugs, he could face up to 10 years in prison.
The State Department said in a statement that it is still working for his release. The White House National Security Council told ABC it was in contact with Richardson but wouldn't say more.
The White House doesn't have a representative like Richardson. Reed approached Russia's government and the Biden administration separately to see if they would accept a deal. He told what he had heard back to the other side.
Cherelle Griner said she would support a trip if it happened and requested the Richardson team's help.
"We asked the Richardson Center to help and I'm encouraged that he might be going," Cherelle said in a statement to ABC.
This report was contributed to by ABC News and T.J.Quinn.
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