After four months in Russian custody, WNBA star Brittney Griner was finally given permission to speak by phone with her wife, Cherelle Griner, over the weekend, but the call was never connected due to a “logistical error” by the U.S. State Department. “I was distraught. I was hurt. I was done, fed up,” Cherelle Griner told the Associated Press of the botched phone call. The call, scheduled on the couple’s fourth anniversary on Saturday, was weeks in the making. The basketball star spent hours calling the U.S. embassy in Moscow, which was supposed to patch the call through to Cherelle, but no one picked up. Although Brittney Griner made 11 phone calls, Cherelle said she later learned there were no staffers working the desk where the phone was, leaving them unanswered. The State Department apologized for the letdown on Monday, saying in a statement that “we deeply regret that Brittney Griner was unable to speak with her wife because of a logistical error.” Cherelle said she is “very pissed” over the incident, which makes her question whether U.S. officials are really doing all they can to bring Brittney home after the Biden administration said she was “wrongfully” detained in February on a drug charge. “I find it unacceptable and I have zero trust in our government right now. If I can’t trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife’s behalf to come home?” Cherelle said.
