REPORT: Brittney Griner Has 2 Likely Legal Paths After Drug Arrest In Russia

Brittney Griner remains held in Russia over drug charges with up to a decade in prison on the table, and she is not looking at very many options to help her out going forward. For days, family and friends have been clamoring for the release of the two-time Olympic champion.

The 31-year-old is a championship-winning player with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and spends her offseasons playing for the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg.

ESPN investigative reporter T.J. Quinn gave his take on the matter and stated there are two likely legal paths for Griner.

The first is that Griner could hire a Russian defense attorney in hopes of limiting her legal jeopardy. The second is riskier and could either get her released faster or get her into more trouble. Basically, Griner would go the political route and try to become a political bargaining chip between the U.S. and Russian government.

There’s little information on Griner’s situation, but experts I’ve spoken to (like Tom Firestone, former DOJ legal advisor to US Embassy in Moscow, who joined me on air) say she’s teetering between two legal paths. /1 https://t.co/iZSqzgCGDI

— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) March 7, 2022

then she becomes a hostage instead of a criminal defendant. As a 6-9 Black gay American woman, she’s a powerful cultural symbol, and experts worry that Putin would use her a a cautionary tale of American decadence. This is why everyone around her is trying to keep it low key. /3

— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) March 7, 2022

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But even in the best case, she’s in for a long legal slog in the Russian criminal justice system. And there’s little the US govt can do about it. /x

— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) March 7, 2022

Late last month, ESPN reported that several WNBA players who play in Russia were planning to leave due to the Ukraine invasion.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, wrote: “My heart, our hearts, are all skipping beats everyday that goes by … There are no words to express this pain. I’m hurting, we’re hurting. We await the day to love on you as a family.”

Another potential problem for Griner is that the LGBTQ community in Russia says that it is often harassed and discriminated against by the country’s government.

In 2019, two people were killed and some 40 others detained during a crackdown on the LGBTQ community in Chechnya.