Last month, the State Department reclassified her as wrongfully detained and thereby transferred oversight of her case to the State Department Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA).
Jones, with the help of President Vladimir Putin, became a citizen in 2015. The retired athlete says he reached out to several of his Russian friends.
“I had a friend, a couple of my friends that I knew, I called and I asked him ‘Is there any way we can try to facilitate?’ because I don’t do politics. I’m a sports figure and they love me as a sports figure. ‘Is there any way we can use my sports influence to possibly can get anything arranged to help get Brittney home?'”
He stated that there could be the possibility of a prisoner exchange.
“My friend called me back and he said, ‘yes, they said they’d be willing to do a prisoner exchange.’ I said, ‘Well it’s probably rough because the prisoner exchange is probably a real prisoner.’ She’s not necessarily a person that’s a real prisoner but I’m sure that maybe the U.S. will be understanding of this and get her back home because I’d be terrified if my kid was stuck in a foreign country in jail, you know?”Jones claims that one of his friends has a direct connection to the Russian president.
