Kirby: Hey, Bout was going to get out in seven years anyway, you know

BREAM: Okay. Let’s talk about the big news this week between Viktor Bout, the illegal arms merchant who was convicted of a number of things was on a sentence here in the U.S. and he was traded for Brittney Griner, I think all Americans celebrate and have great relief that she is home.

But there are questions about exactly went down — what went down there. NBC initially had reporting that said the White House was given a choice between Paul Whelan, a U.S. marine who is being held on espionage charges by Russia, and Brittney Griner or no one. They said it was a misstatement. They corrected it later to say it was either Brittney Griner or no one.

Can you unequivocally say that there was never an option between Paul Whelan or Brittney Griner?

KIRBY: Yes, ma’am, I can.

There was never a choice posed by the Russians, well, hey, you give us Bout back, and then you can decide whether you want Brittney or Paul. That was never the arrangement. It was only Ms. Griner for Mr. Bout.

They treat Paul differently, Shannon, because of these sham espionage charges. He is put in a special category by the Russians. And try as we might, and believe me, Shannon, we did right until the very end, we were making efforts to try to get both of them out. There was just no way to get there.

So it was either make this deal now and at least get one of them home, and keep up the efforts to get Paul home. And that’s where we are right now.

BREAM: I want to ask about Marc Fogel because he is a U.S. teacher. He’s taught in Russia for I think more than a decade, roughly a decade or so. He was taken into custody in August of last year, also coming through an airport there. Had medical marijuana with him that was that was prescribed by a doctor because of injuries and surgeries that he’s been through.

He’s been sentenced to 14 years. He obviously doesn’t have name recognition or a celebrity of Brittney Griner, but he’s been held on similar charges for longer than she has.

Why wasn’t he part of this conversation or this deal?

KIRBY: There’s a limit in this particular case about what I can say publicly. I can tell you, we’re obviously mindful of this, of course. But there are some constraints here in terms of what we can say, publicly.

I can just broadly say that when it comes to wrongful detentions, of Americans around the world overseas, whether it’s Russia or anywhere else, we’re going to work as hard as we can to get them home.

…

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS: So, how will this administration answer the questions about why Marc Fogel and Paul Whelan were left behind?

KIRBY: We will, of course, cooperate fully with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. If there’s a need and desire for more information, we’ll be as forthcoming as we obviously can be. Of course, we respect the role of Congress.

A couple of points here. Mr. Bout wasn’t serving a life sentence, Shannon. He was going to get out in 2029. So, at some point in the not too distant future, he would have been a free man. It is six years earlier.

Nobody over at the White House is doing back flips of joy that he is walking the streets. But this was the deal we could get. Now was the moment we could get it.

We’re obviously going to look after our national security going forward and Mr. Bout has choices to make. If he chooses to get back into that line of work and we’re going to do everything we can to hold him properly accountable as we have in the past. We did a national security assessment. We believe that whatever risk there is was manageable and okay to make this deal.