There are signs that a major prisoner swap between Russia and the United States could happen soon and include metro Detroit native Paul Whelan.
National Security Council Communications Advisor John Kirby was asked Wednesday if there were any updates to secure their release.
Kirby said they have been consistently working to bring wrongfully-detained Americans home.
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“The attention that the President has paid personally to the cases of Paul Whelan and to Evan Gershkovich, from the Wall Street Journal, is very, very high, as is the whole team,” Kirby said, according to ABC.
It comes amid a report from Reuters that a signs of a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Belarus on one side and the United States, Germany, Britain and Slovenia on the other, have increased.
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According to Reuters, Whelan and a Russian-British dissident named Vladimir Kara-Murza disappeared from view on Wednesday, according to the lawyers.
The report also said seven Russian dissidents were moved from their prisons in recent days.
“This is a President that has made it a priority to get home wrongfully detained Americans, back to their families, back to their loved ones,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
Whelan, who lived Novi, was arrested in 2018 in Russia and charged with espionage. He was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
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