Trevor Reed says US should trade Viktor Bout if it will free Americans held in Russia

Trevor Reed told ABC News he will advocate that the U.S. government negotiate a prisoner swap for Americans Paul Whelan, a former Marine, and WNBA player Brittney Griner.

Trevor Reed, the former U.S. Marine recently released after nearly three years in Russian captivity, has called on the U.S. government to negotiate a prisoner swap like the one that freed him to bring Americans Paul Whelan, a former Marine, and WNBA player Brittney Griner, who are both being detained in Russia.

Reed and his parents, Joey and Paula Reed, told ABC News if it meant freeing Whelan and Griner, the United States should trade the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence, and who Russia has floated as a possible candidate for a swap.

"I think that the United States should make any type of agreement to get Paul out. And if that includes an exchange, I think they should absolutely do that," the 30-year-old Reed said in a lengthy interview with ABC News on Saturday, one of the first he has given since being freed.

Bout, dubbed the "Merchant of Death” by the media and a notorious weapons trafficker, was pursued for over a decade by Western governments and is widely believed to have ties to Russian intelligence. He was finally captured during a sting operation led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Thailand and extradited to the U.S.