Marine vet asks Biden why he was left in Russian prison

US Marine veteran Paul Whelan has accused President Biden of leaving him as a “hostage” in Russia instead of negotiating a prisoner swap like the one that freed Trevor Reed.

“Why was I left behind?” Whelan, 52, asked at hearing news of Reed’s release Wednesday, according to a statement from his family.

“While I am pleased Trevor is home with his family, I have been held on a fictitious charge of espionage for 40 months,” he said from his Moscow prison.

Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence after a trial that US officials denounced as unfair, insisted that “the world knows this charge was fabricated.”

“Why hasn’t more been done to secure my release?” he asked in a direct challenge to Biden, who took credit for freeing Reed on Wednesday in exchange for a Russian pilot who was a major international drug trafficker.

In a separate statement, Whelan’s family said that news of Reed’s release from his Moscow cell brought “varied emotions” for their own relative who has “already spent 3 and a quarter years as a Russian hostage.”

“Our family is full of happiness for the Reeds,” they said.

But “Trevor is free. Paul remains a hostage.”

“Who gets saved is the President’s choice,” they noted, questioning whether “President Biden is unwilling to make” the necessary tough decisions.

“We hope we don’t have to pin our hopes on another American President before someone will do the right thing for Paul,” they said.

They also asked if “President Biden’s failure to bring Paul home” was “an admission that some cases are too hard to solve.”

“Is the Administration’s piecemeal approach picking low-hanging fruit? And how does a family know that their loved one’s case is too difficult, a hostage too far out of reach?”

They said that “time is not on Paul’s side” because the prisoner’s parents are both in their 80s.

“Our hope remains that Paul will be home so they may see him once more. But each day that hope dims,” they warned.

Separately, Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, tweeted that she expects Biden to “have the decency to meet with me ASAP and explain his plan for getting my brother back from the Russians.”

The White House insisted Thursday that it had not forgotten the imprisoned veteran.

“We will continue to do everything possible to bring Paul Whelan home,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.