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House Speaker Mike Johnson will host the parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich – who has been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia for almost a yr – at President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.
In a press release to Fox News Digital, Johnson’s workplace confirmed that Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich can be the speaker’s particular company.
“I’m honored to host Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich for the State of the Union address,” Johnson mentioned in a press release.
“By internet hosting Evan’s parents, Congress will shine a highlight on the unjust detention of their son,” he mentioned.
WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTERS EVAN GERSHKOVICH TURNS 32 WHILE WRONGFULLY DETAINED BY RUSSIA
The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is proven on this undated picture. (The Wall Street Journal by way of AP)
The Republican speaker of the House mentioned that the Biden administration “must bring Evan home.”
“The United States must always stand for freedom of the press around the world, especially in places like Russia, where it is under assault,” Johnson mentioned. “The Administration must bring Evan home.”
Speaker Mike Johnson has invited the parents of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich to attend President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.
Gershkovich’s parents have beforehand pleaded with the Biden administration to convey their son house.
“We had President Biden’s promise to do whatever it takes, to bring Evan back. He also told us that he relates to us as a parent, he feels our pain, and his words are in my ears every single day. But it’s been 250 days and Evan is not here,” his mom, Ella Milman, advised Steve Doocy on “FOX & Friends” in December 2023.
“The efforts to do whatever it takes hasn’t been done,” Milman mentioned.
March 29 is the one-year anniversary of Gershkovich’s arrest by Russian authorities on prices of espionage.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is escorted from the Lefortovsky courtroom in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Gershkovich was detained March 29, 2023, throughout a reporting journey in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest metropolis in Russia, and accused of being a spy.
The U.S. has lengthy asserted that Russia’s allegation is ridiculous, as have his colleagues, who describe the American-born son of Soviet immigrants as a diligent reporter who’s getting used as a political pawn due to his excessive profile.
The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. authorities vehemently denied the espionage allegations towards Gershkovich and have known as for his instant launch.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court, in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)
His arrest was seen as a brazen violation of press freedom that not solely poses widespread penalties for journalism and the media, however for governments and democracies in every single place, and half of a wider journalism crackdown by the autocratic Russian Federation.
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“He is definitely not a spy. That is an outrage. He is a reporter, he was there doing his job,” Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker mentioned.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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