White House Press Conference Underway Shortly

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is shortly due to deliver her regular press conference from the White House.

• Livestream: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/
• Jean-Pierre yesterday faced sharp questioning from the White House press pack on the Brittney Griner Viktor Bout prisoner transfer between the US and Russia.
• Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement: “We cannot ignore that releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision. We must stop inviting dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans overseas as bargaining chips, and we must try do better at encouraging American citizens against traveling to places like Russia where they are primary targets for this type of unlawful detention.”
• Former National Security Advisor to Donald Trump, John Bolton told CBS yesterday that the Trump administration turned down a Russian offer to trade Bout for Paul Whelan in 2020. Bolton: “Obviously, there’s a lot of very understandable human emotion here in getting Griner released, but this is a very bad mistake by the Biden administration.”