I also hope that Paul Whelan is released in the future deals - but he seems to be the more important to Putin to continue to hold onto for espionage\and PR purposes, but after reading this, I don't know why the U.S. would trust him to be a spy or use him -
Personally speaking, I knew nothing of the man: Wikipedia and background bio:
He was an
IT manager for the
Kelly Services staffing company from 2001
[8] to 2003, and then 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2016 Whelan was Kelly Services' senior manager of global security and operations.
[8]
He enlisted in the
Marine Corps Reserve in 1994.
[7] He took military leave from Kelly Services to serve with the Marine Corps Reserve from 2003 to 2008, including service in Iraq. He held the rank of
staff sergeant with Marine Air Control Group 38 working as an administrative clerk and administrative chief, and he was part of
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
[8] After a
court-martial conviction in January 2008 on multiple counts "related to
larceny", he was sentenced to 60 days restriction, reduction to pay grade E-4, and
a bad conduct discharge.[9][10] The specific charges against him included "attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another’s social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment."
[11]
When arrested in Russia, Whelan was director of global security and investigations for
BorgWarner, an international automotive parts manufacturer based in Michigan.
[8] His work with Kelly Services and BorgWarner gave Whelan contacts with law enforcement in many countries.
Paul Whelan was court-martialed by the Marine Corps and received a Bad Conduct discharge after being convicted of multiple counts of larceny, dereliction of duty, identity fraud, false statements, and check fraud.
He is and has been all along, a Trump supporter
en.wikipedia.org