Donald Trump loves to talk up his relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, but it thus far hasn’t meant much for the American people.
Now, family members in North Texas say a nine-year prison sentence for a U.S. Marine Corp veteran handed down by a Russian court is politically motivated and they are raising money for his appeal.
Trevor Reed, who was was born in Fort Worth and had his 29th birthday on July 5 while incarcerated in Russia, was initially arrested by two Russian police officers after drinking too much vodka at a party.
Reed said he has no recollection of what happened during and after his arrest for allegedly assaulting police in mid-August 2019, according to a news release from Reed’s supporters.
Reed has been jailed in Russia since his arrest.
On Thursday, Reed was sentenced in a Russian court following a trial in which the prosecution’s case and the evidence presented against him were so preposterous that they provoked laughter in the courtroom, a statement from U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan says.
“Even the judge laughed,” Sullivan’s statement continued. “This conviction, and a sentence of nine years, for an alleged crime that so obviously did not occur, is ridiculous. I cannot even say ‘miscarriage of justice’ because clearly ‘justice’ was not even considered. This was theater of the absurd.
“U.S. consular officers have attended each of Mr. Reed’s court appearances, and have been in touch with him regularly. I have spoken and met with Mr. Reed’s father, Joey Reed, multiple times as this case has unfolded. In fact, I spoke with him this afternoon, and I assured him that we will not rest until Trevor is freed and returns home to the United States.”
Sullivan pledged in his statement to continue to advocate on Reed’s behalf and said that the safety and welfare of all U.S. citizens in Russia is his highest priority.
“The evidence is flimsy, and most certainly, Trevor Reed should not spend nine years in a Russian jail,” said Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia.
McFaul went on to add that Trump’s coziness to Putin undermines Sullivan in tough negotiations.
“I admire what Ambassador Sullivan is doing in Moscow,” said McFaul, “but it’s at such odds with what President Trump says that it undermines the integrity and legitimacy and the meaning of the words of a US ambassador or an assistant secretary of state and the State Department. And that gap, I think, needs to be closed.”
Prior to his arrest, Reed shared a car with his Russian girlfriend, Alina Tsibulnik, and some of her colleagues early on Aug. 16, but became nauseated and got out of the car near a busy street.
People in the car called the police, worried that Reed would walk into traffic or cause an accident.
The police arrived and told his girlfriend they would take Reed to the police station.
Tsibulnik and the people she was riding with followed the police car to the station. Once there, the police told Tsibulnik to come back around 9 a.m. to pick Reed up.
According to the Russian police, Reed grabbed the arm of the officer driving the police vehicle and caused it to swerve and enter the oncoming lanes and they feared it would roll over. But police never told Reed’s girlfriend of the allegation, Reed’s supporters said in the news release.
When Tsibulnik returned to the police station to pick him up as she had been told to do, the FSB had arrived, the release said.
During the trial, which began in March, prosecutors were unable to establish that an assault took place, according to the release.
Video evidence shows that the police car never swerved and in the latest version of the police’s story, the officer testified that he couldn’t recall whether the car had swerved at all, the release said.
Reed’s attorneys said it was their position that no evidence exists to substantiate the charges against Reed, that he has been wrongfully detained and they urged Russian officials to agree with their stance, the release said.
In his final statement to the judge, Reed said, “I think it would be unethical and immoral to plead guilty to a crime I didn’t commit. If I’m going to be given a prison sentence, I’d rather stay in prison than walk free tomorrow a liar and a coward.”
Reed was visiting Russia for the summer to take Russian language classes for his bachelor’s degree and spend time with his girlfriend, a resident of Moscow.
Tsibulnik said she found Reed showing signs he had been beaten up, his face bruised, when she returned to the jail to retrieve him.
Officers from Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, the FSB, questioned Reed without an attorney or a translator present, Tsibulnik told an ABC reporter.
Tomorrow, USMC vet @freetrevorreed will be sentenced. This was his final statement in Court refusing to admit to a crime he didn’t commit.
“If I’m going to be given a prison sentence, I would rather stay in prison an honest man than walk free tomorrow a liar & a coward.” pic.twitter.com/x6tdEJn7Fe
— Jonathan Franks (@jonfranks) July 29, 2020
Reed was arrested and charged with deliberately endangering the lives of the two police officers who had transported him to the station.
Investigators accuse him of having attacked the officers while in the police car, shaking the driver by the shoulders, allegedly causing him to swerve into oncoming traffic and putting them in mortal danger.
In June, Russia sentenced another U.S. citizen, Paul Whelan, to 16 years in a high-security prison on espionage charges.
There has been speculation that U.S. citizens in Russian prisons could become part of a possible prisoner swap reportedly being negotiated by Moscow and Washington.
Reed is an eighth-generation Texan who grew up in Tehachapi, California, and graduated from high school there.
A Texas Rangers baseball team fan, Reed returned to Texas after graduating from high school, and began going to college, according to his biography on the Free Trevor Reed website.
Trevor Reed pictured with his father, Joey Reed, (left) at a Texas Rangers baseball game.
Reed joined the U.S. Marine Corps and received an honorable discharge at the end of his service.
In 2017, Trevor began working toward a degree in International Studies at the University of North Texas.
Reed chose Russian as a foreign language to fulfill a degree requirement and because it was his girlfriend’s native language.
Trump hasn’t commented on the case, although he spoke with Putin on other topics last month.