(CNN)The family of an American jailed in Russia is using President Joe Biden’s trip to Texas on Tuesday to request a meeting with the president to discuss the case, going as far as to wait in the cold with a sign Catching Biden’s attention after White House declined to set up a meeting.
Joey and Paula Reed, the parents of former US Marine Trevor Reed, stood for hours in the cold weather in Fort Worth, Texas, holding a sign for their son and waiting for Biden’s motorcade to drive by hoping the president would stop to speak to him. The Reed family’s attempt to set up a meeting with Biden before the visit was denied, they said, but White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters a meeting could still be arranged.
“We are working to set up a meeting with his family. The President looks forward to it,” Psaki told reporters as they boarded Air Force One for Fort Worth.
Reed’s family stood near the street and waved as Biden’s motorcade drove past in front of Biden’s speech.
Paula Reed, Trevor’s mother, said she saw Biden greet her from his vehicle.
“That was the whole purpose of coming here, to get his attention,” she said, saying it was “absolutely” worth it.
The Reeds said they had not received any direct communication from the White House as of Tuesday afternoon.
Trevor Reed has been in prison in Russia since 2019. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2020 for endangering the “life and health” of Russian police officers after a night of drinking. He and his family have denied the allegations, and US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan called the trial “a theater of the absurd.”
Joey Reed said he was concerned that the invasion of Ukraine would aggravate his son’s fate, along with that of Paul Whelan, a US, Irish, British and Canadian national, who was arrested by Russian authorities in a Moscow hotel in December 2018 was arrested who claimed to have been involved in an intelligence operation.
The Reed family, who met with Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan last December, said they had been asking to meet with the president for months. Shortly after Psaki said a presidential meeting was in the works, Joey Reed told CNN the family had had no new communications with the White House.
Jon Franks, a spokesman for the Reed family, said Psaki’s comments were very welcome.
“We are grateful that they appear to have reconsidered and are awaiting details. Just a reminder that the Reeds took grateful note of their meeting with NSA Sullivan when it took place in December. They look forward to gratefully acknowledging a meeting with their President,” said Franks.
“We want to speak to the President and say, ‘You’re the only man in the world who can bring him home, and you can do it today,'” Reed said Tuesday ahead of the White House announcement.
Joey Reed said he heard Monday that the meeting would not take place during Biden’s trip on Tuesday.
“What we were told second-hand was that we didn’t have enough time,” he said. “I know every second is scheduled for the President every day, but three minutes? Three or four minutes? I think he could spare himself that.”
Trevor Reed has said in recent weeks he is coughing up blood and his family are concerned he has tuberculosis. Joey Reed said he only spoke to his son on Monday and asked Trevor if he wanted to send a message to Biden.
“He said, ‘I have nothing to say to the President. I think they forgot about me,'” Reed said. “We didn’t (forgot) him. We love our son and we will fight to the death to bring him home.”
Whelan, a former US Marine, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges, which he vehemently denies.
Whelan’s family have said in recent days that the US should not forget him and Reed as the US discusses Russian sanctions.
“We are monitoring the impact of the sanctions, anticipating retaliation from the government of the Russian Federation and are making all possible contingency plans to assist him,” Paul’s brother David Whelan wrote in a statement released late last week. “Paul’s wrongful detention was always about the government of the Russian Federation extorting concessions from the US government.”
“If the Russian Federation demands a concession to lift sanctions, let Paul and Trevor’s freedom be part of the price the Russian authorities are paying in return,” David Whelan added in the statement. “Our family will express this view to members of Congress, the State Department and the White House.”
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
This week, the White House turned some of its attention to the detention in Russia of American basketball star Brittney Griner.
Griner was arrested in Russia after customs officers discovered cannabis oil in the athlete’s luggage at an airport near Moscow, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service. According to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the government is working on the process to get them out of Russia.
The White House has so far declined publicly to discuss Griner’s imprisonment or possible efforts to secure her release.
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