Recognizing the Incredible and Heroic Advocacy of Elizabeth Whelan

Floor Speech

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Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the incredible and heroic advocacy of Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of my wrongfully detained constituent, U.S. citizen, and Michigander, Paul Whelan.

Paul Whelan is the longest detained American in Russia. Since his detention in December 2018, Elizabeth has been his fiercest advocate and tireless champion, alongside her brother, David; and parents, Rosemary and Ed.

Elizabeth has spent nearly $100,000 of her own money in the last 5 years to travel to D.C. to meet with political leaders and State Department officials to receive updates on Paul's case, and fight for his release.

Yesterday, speaking at the United Nations, alongside U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Elizabeth directly confronted Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, and implored him to release Paul and to end their cruel practice of hostage diplomacy.

Elizabeth's speech has reverberated around the world. It has made its way to Paul's prison camp in Mordovia.

I have been honored to work with Elizabeth for many years and she will always serve as an inspiration to me and my staff.

Her words yesterday speak for themselves: ``Paul has not committed a crime, but a crime has been committed against him.''

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