GRANBURY, Texas — Joey Reed will never forget March 8, 2022.
He, his wife, and other family members were advocating for his son's release from a Russian prison outside a Fort Worth event where President Biden was speaking--hoping to get someone from his administration to notice their cause.
Their son, Trevor Reed, a former Marine who had been imprisoned since 2019 for nearly three years, wasn't doing well. His health was declining, and the Reeds feared the U.S. didn't have much time to make a deal with Russian authorities to bring Trevor home.
Mid-interview with local news stations, a phone rang with the caller ID: 'White House.' President Biden was on the other line.
"Look, what you're going through is hell," President Biden said. "I just can't imagine what you're going through. I don't want you to think it's not something that I constantly think about."
That moment, per Reed, was a breakthrough moment for his family.
"Unless you're wealthy, famous, or know someone in Washington, DC, breaking through that ceiling is difficult. That was our breakthrough day," Reed told WFAA Thursday.
Trevor was charged with assaulting a police officer and was put on trial for it, which U.S. officials called absurd at the time.
In 2019, Reed traveled to Moscow to spend the summer with his girlfriend, a law student he had met online. The two had been dating for some time, but after a private party, Reed became intoxicated, and Russian police took him to sober up at a nearby station.
However, Reed's family says things took a drastic turn after Russia's FSB intelligence agency agents arrived and questioned Reed about his time as a Marine.
In 2020, Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison. After losing his appeal, he was moved to a prison camp in Mordovia, a penal colony roughly 350 miles from Moscow.
"When the President saw us out there, he made that call," Reed said. "We met him at the White House about a month later, and then our son was home about 30 days later. I don't think that he would have survived. He was in really bad shape."
That joy is what several American families are feeling Thursday after the largest US-Russia prisoner swap since the Cold War happened. Eight Russian convicts were returned to their homeland. In contrast, 16 prisoners from Russia were freed.
Some of those notable prisoners were Paul Whelan, another ex-Marine and corporate security executive charged with spying in 2018, and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was accused of spying, also in that same year. The U.S. Government has said that both charges are baseless.
Whelan's family and the Reeds have aligned with each other since both were imprisoned.
"He was in prison months before Trevor was taken--and both Paul and Trevor are Marines. They're not popular with the Russian government. We just felt like there was strength in numbers, especially when you're trying to get media attention. We were all upset, including Trevor when Paul didn't come home with him in 2022."
Reed said he contacted Whelan's family after news of the swap hit the airwaves.
"I messaged back and forth with his brother today, and they're just so relieved. They were afraid that he'd never get to see them again."
The Whelans and the Reeds are heavily involved in the 'Bring Our Family Home Campaign,' which is affiliated with the Foley Foundation.
It's an initiative comprised entirely of the families of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained overseas and advocates for their release.
"We never wanted to be the IGM'ers. The 'I got mine.' We couldn't just turn our backs on all the other families that are living this hell every day," Reed told WFAA.
In Washington D.C., UT Arlington Professor Brian Whitmore is also feeling elation.
Whitmore teaches courses on Russian foreign and Domestic Policies and is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center in Washington, a think tank focused on global diplomacy and relations.
But before that, he was a foreign correspondent in Moscow working for the Boston Globe. He knows two other Russian dissidents included in the release--Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza. Both are also journalists.
"Kurmasheva is my old friend; we worked together at Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, for 11 years. She's a dual US-Russian citizen who was just home visiting her family. Kara-Murza is a Russian-British citizen and a U.S. green card holder. He's also very close to me, and I begged him not to return to Russia when he did in 2022 because it was pretty clear what would happen if he went back."
Kara-Murza opposed the war in Ukraine and was charged for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian military.
"He's a very principled, idealistic guy who believed he had to fight for democracy in Russia," Whitmore said.
Either way--Whitmore said this should be a moment of celebration for America, not criticism. After WNBA star Britney Griner was released in exchange for a deadly arms dealer, Viktor Bout, social media threw out its nasty opinions.
"I mean, if a terrorist group took Americans hostage, wouldn't we want them home?" Whitmore asked. He had Kurmasheva's husband and daughter on his podcast weeks ago, advocating for her release.
"These people belong with their families--not in Putin's gulag."
Reed agreed.
"Somebody once said to Trevor to explain how a mass arms dealer gets traded for an innocent person. He said the innocent person is innocent and American. I don't care if they trade 10 Viktor Bouts. Let's get our Americans home," Reed said.
"America isn't here arresting Russians because they're Russian--even if we did, Russia wouldn't care. They only bring home their murderers, criminals, and arms dealers."