PRESS RELEASE

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement on the prisoner swap with Russia:

“Joe Biden’s prisoner swap with Vladimir Putin released Viktor Bout, the notorious ‘Merchant of Death’ who armed America’s worst enemies. And it left behind Paul Whelan, a Marine veteran who’s languishing in a Russian jail cell on trumped-up charges. Americans welcome the release of Brittney Griner, but it shouldn’t have come at the cost of releasing one of the world’s worst arms dealers and creating a dangerous precedent for our enemies: detain Americans and Democrats will agree to set your worst killers free.”