Phone call between WNBA’s Griner and wife rescheduled

Washington — A phone call between jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner and her wife is being rescheduled after an earlier attempt to connect on the couple's anniversary failed because of an “unfortunate mistake,” Biden administration officials said Tuesday.

White House press secretary Karine JeanPierre told reporters that the State Department was working to arrange a new call but did not say when that would be. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the call could not be completed because of a “logistical error” that officials have worked quickly to fix so that a new call can take place.

Griner was to have spoken with her wife Cherelle on Saturday, the couple's fourth anniversary, for the first time since her arrest in Russia in mid-February. The call was to have been routed through the American embassy in Russia, which was to have patched the conversation through.

Cherelle Griner told The Associated Press on Monday that no call ever came. She said she later learned that her wife had tried 11 times to call her through the embassy by dialing a number that she had been given, but that no one picked up because that particular desk was unstaffed on Saturday.

Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA All-Star who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was detained at a Russian airport on Feb. 17 after authorities there said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.

The State Department in May designated her as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.