'Putin will do that for me': Trump again claims post-election deal for reporter's release

Donald Trump again pledged that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich would be released from Russian detention if he was re-elected.

The journalist was arrested in March 2023 on spying charges and has spent more than a year in a Moscow prison without a trial date scheduled, and the former president suggested for the second time in two weeks that Russian president Vladimir Putin would release Gershkovich as a personal favor upon his re-election.

"Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office," Trump said in a video statement posted on Truth Social. "He will be home, he will be safe. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, will do that for me, and I don't believe he'll do it for anyone else, and we will be paying nothing. Biden likes to pay massive numbers. We will be paying nothing."

Trump has drawn significant criticism for suggesting that he had worked out a deal for the reporter's release that would not take place for months in an effort to boost his election chances.

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"As a former wrongful detainee in Russia, I would just like to remind everyone that President Trump had the ability to get myself and Paul Whelan out of Russia for years and chose not to," said Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed, who was released in a 2022 prisoner swap after nearly three years in detention following his arrest for intoxication.

The camera angle changes at one point during Trump's 30-second statement, suggesting the 30-second video statement was record in two takes and then spliced together.

"Trump – in his infinite stupidity – has, by some measure, probably decreased the chance Putin will release Evan Gershkovich before the election now. What a fool," posted Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor and political scientist at Georgia State University College of Law.