WASHINGTON — Former national security officials from the Trump administration are slamming the former president for meddling in delicate hostage negotiations surrounding Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal journalist who was jailed in Russia last year.
Donald Trump has promised to release Gershkovich if he is elected, but White House veterans say that promise could undermine American democracy by delaying the journalist’s release and encouraging Russia to hold Gershkovich until after the election to help the Trump campaign. Russia has accused Gershkovich of espionage, which his family, employer and President Biden say are false.
In a campaign ad released on Tuesday, Trump boasted that Russia would immediately return Gershkovich if he beat Biden in November.
“Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter being held by Russia, will be released shortly after the election, but certainly before I take office,” Trump told cameras as he held up two American flags. “He’s going home. He’s safe.”
“Russian President Vladimir Putin would do that for me. I don’t think he would do that for anybody else,” Trump added. “And we wouldn’t pay anything. Biden likes to pay big money. We wouldn’t pay anything.”
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The remarks could signal to Putin that Trump wants to use the jailed journalist as a campaign issue.
“Trump’s comments have undermined any negotiations for (Gershkovich’s) release until after the election,” said Alexander Vindman, who served as director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Russia on the White House National Security Council during the Trump administration.
Putin won’t let Gershkovich go for free to anyone, including Trump, predicted Vindman, who also served as Russia political-military affairs officer for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and military attache at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Putin would only do so as a “quid pro quo” for people he wants released from U.S. and allied prisons, Vindman said.
“To make good on this boast, Trump will likely accede to a hostage exchange request that’s on Putin’s wish list,” Vindman added.
“There are a lot of issues with this.”
Fiona Hill, another Russia expert on Trump’s National Security Council, said Trump’s comments undermine US national security in a number of ways.
“There are a lot of problems with this,” said Hill, who said that while in the Trump White House, he helped negotiate with Russia for the release of wrongfully imprisoned Americans.
“It’s a classic brag of his to claim he has a special relationship with President Putin,” Hill said. “But it’s favoritism,” she added. Gershkovich’s possible release comes at the expense of other Americans wrongfully held in Russia, including former Marine Paul Whelan.
More seriously, Hill said, Trump’s own allegations indicate “he sees this as a kind of personal favor, not an issue related to U.S. national security. It raises the question of whether President Putin somehow communicated this to him behind the scenes. Is Russia again reaching out to potential nominees? This would be a repeat of 2016.”
Echoes of President Trump’s 2016 “Russia, if you’re listening” invitation
Hill, Vindman and other Trump watchers say Trump’s new claims are reminiscent of his public comments during the 2016 campaign when he asked Russia to find rival Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you can find the 30,000 missing emails,” Trump said on July 27, 2016. “The Russian press will probably be very reciprocated. We’ll see if that happens.”
Shortly thereafter, the Kremlin hacked the Democratic National Committee’s email server, releasing embarrassing emails from the Clinton campaign.
After President Trump’s election and before he took office, when the Obama administration was urgently investigating and imposing sanctions on Moscow for allegedly interfering in the U.S. presidential election to help President Trump, retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, one of his top national security advisers, was also holding secret talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
According to federal law, private citizens who “attempt to influence the actions or conduct of a foreign government or its officials or agents in connection with a dispute or controversy with the United States” are subject to criminal charges punishable by up to three years in prison.
Trump appointed Flynn as his first White House national security adviser, then fired him after his secret negotiations became public. Flynn eventually received a pardon from Trump after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his discussions with Kislyak and agreeing to cooperate with the ongoing Russia investigation.
What does Trump have to say about the new allegations?
Trump campaign spokesman Steve Chang told USA Today that Trump was simply comparing his White House rival, President Joe Biden, to his ability to get things done on the world stage.
“During his term, President Trump has a track record of returning detained Americans home without paying them or compromising our nation’s ideals,” Chang said. “Evan’s situation and Biden’s inability to secure his release is a sign of national weakness and is repulsive to those of us who believe in President Trump and the safety of the American people.”
Chang declined to answer specifics of Trump’s allegations, including whether he has had contact with Russian officials or why he believes he will be successful when the Biden administration’s protracted and often acrimonious negotiations have not.
But Chang said, “President Trump is so determined to release them because he wants the world to respect our country again.”
What are Russia and Biden saying?
Trump has made similar claims about bringing Gershkovich home in recent months on his social media platform, Truth Social, and in an interview with Time magazine.
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump said his relationship with Putin would help him succeed in freeing the journalists. “I’m very good friends with Putin,” Trump said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin has not been in contact with Trump. Discussions between Moscow and Washington about Gershkovich and other Americans held in Russia are taking place “through a special closed channel,” Peskov told The New York Times.
“I know that the US government is certainly taking vigorous measures to free him,” Putin told a foreign news agency in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, “but these issues are not to be resolved through the media. They want a quiet, calm and professional approach and dialogue between intelligence agencies. And, of course, they should only be resolved on the basis of reciprocity.”
Biden White House and campaign officials criticized Trump for interfering in U.S. negotiations over Gershkovich and for rejecting a release deal for Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence in Russia on bogus espionage charges.
“Donald Trump doesn’t care about the innocent Americans who have been wrongfully imprisoned by Vladimir Putin,” Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said. “Trump has called journalists ‘enemies of the people’ and vowed to jail any reporters who report stories he doesn’t like, which is not so different from what is happening to Evan Gershkovich in Russia right now. In fact, Trump missed an opportunity during his presidency to bring home Paul Whelan, who was detained under the Trump administration. To Donald Trump, these wrongfully imprisoned Americans are political weapons and props to use for his own gain. To Joe Biden, on the other hand, they are human beings who have spent time with their loved ones and families. Their release is an urgent priority, as it has been for the 60 wrongfully detained or held hostage Americans we have already brought home since he took office.”
Like Whelan, the Biden administration has designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” meaning the U.S. believes the charges against him were trumped up to be used as a political hostage or bargaining chip.
The Wall Street Journal, which has lobbied hard for Gershkovich’s release, also declined to comment when asked about Trump’s claims.
That’s Trump’s prerogative, “if he’s re-elected.”
John Hardy, deputy director of the Russia program at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Trump has a right to insist that Gershkovich be brought home.
“This is a free country, so I think it’s OK for Trump to make that claim,” Hardy said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily accurate. He’s said multiple times that he can make a deal, whether it’s resolving the Ukraine war or this.”
“But in my opinion, if Trump is in communication with anyone in Russia about possible hostages — and I don’t know if he is — he shouldn’t be doing that. He should hold the current president accountable for that,” Hardy said. “And if Trump is re-elected, he’ll have the right to handle that issue the way he wants.”
