Bill Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations who has traveled to Russia to advocate for their release, predicted on Sunday that they would be released by the year's end.
The basketball player arrived to the hearing.
Richardson was asked on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday if the two athletes could be released from Russia by the end of the year.
Richardson said he was cautiously optimistic about both of their releases and that it would likely be a two-for-two swap with Russia.
Richardson traveled to Moscow to meet with senior Russian officials and discuss the cases of the two men after receiving requests from the family of the basketball player.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters last month that private citizens shouldn't be in Moscow at the moment and can't negotiate on behalf of the US government.
Richardson said Sunday he continues to coordinate with the White House and has been clear he isn't part of the government, and he has a "30-year track record" of helping free people.
Richardson said that any prisoner exchange needs to be made by the White House.
Russian authorities claimed that they found cannabis oil in her luggage at the Moscow airport. She pleaded guilty to the drug charges and argued that she didn't intend to break the law and that she accidentally put the gun in her bag. In August, she was sentenced to nine and a half years for drug possession. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia for espionage, but he has denied it. Relations between Moscow and Washington are at their worst point in decades due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but the Biden Administration claims that both Americans are wrongly held by Russia. In July, U.S. officials said they had proposed a prisoner swap in exchange for her, and that Russian Viktor Bout, who has been serving a 25-year jail sentence for supplying millions of Soviet, was one of the people they had offered. Forbes reported that discussions about trading Bout for Griner started months ago. The U.S. government didn't add Vadim Krasikov to the swap because he was a former colonel with Russia's domestic spy agency who was convicted of murder and imprisoned in Germany
Cherelle Griner told CBS News that the most disturbing call she had ever received was from her husband. She said that you could hear that she wasn't ok. She was at the top of her game that day.
The most disturbing call I've ever experienced was when Cherelle spoke with her husband.
According to a former UN ambassador, the man will be released by the end of the year.
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