Jake Tapper’s CNN Interview With Trevor Reed Could Spark New Awareness of U.S. Citizens Imprisoned Overseas

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWhen CNN presents an exclusive interview Sunday evening between Jake Tapper and Trevor Reed, recently released from Russia after nearly three years of imprisonment, the network has the potential to spur a new strain of activism around U.S.

citizens incarcerated abroad.Reed, who spoke with Tapper for several hours Thursday in Florida, was released “because the Biden administration engaged in a prison swap with Russia, and in the past, that has been seen as controversial,” says Tapper during a recent interview. “The family wants those days to disappear.”During the hour-long special, Reed talks about his experiences overseas, some of which, Tapper says sound like something out of a “horror movie franchise.” He also speaks about his interest in helping other American families who have relatives detained unlawfully overseas.

Tapper also speaks to member of Reed’s family who have spent the past several years trying to call attention to his plight. The special report, “Finally Home: The Trevor Reed Interview,” airs Sunday, May 22 at 8 p.m.

eastern. The meeting didn’t just happen. Tapper says he has spent the past few years checking in with Reed’s family. “I had a relationship with the parents and sister and others,” he notes. “I think that they were very eager to speak because Trevor and his family want to become advocates for others to be freed.”The anchor says Reed and his family “were incredibly generous with their time” and that he was able “to ask everything I wanted to ask.” But it is Reed’s story and candor, he says, that are the main draws of the interview. “It was a roller coaster of an interview.