T.J. Quinn joined ESPN in November 2007 as an investigative reporter for ESPN’s Enterprise Unit, which is charged with developing long-form, investigative features to be presented across multiple platforms.

Brittney Griner is in the process of being transferred to a Russian penal colony — a move her family has dreaded since Griner’s August conviction on drug charges — but her lawyers don’t know where she is or where she’s heading, her Russian legal team announced early Wednesday in Moscow.

The transfer began Friday, her lawyers said, a day after U.S. embassy officials visited her and far ahead of the schedule they had anticipated after Griner’s appeal was denied Oct. 25. Typically, her attorneys had said, a transfer takes weeks or months. Griner’s attorneys and U.S. officials were not aware she had been moved until Tuesday.

Griner’s family might not know where she is for some time; according to her lawyers, “Notification is given via official mail and normally takes up to two weeks to be received.”

Russian penal colonies are known for having far harsher conditions than the Moscow jail where Griner has been she was detained in February.

In a statement released late Tuesday, Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said, “Our primary concern continues to be BG’s health and well-being. As we work through this very difficult phase of not knowing exactly where BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the public’s support in continuing to write letters and express their love and care for her.”

Colas said her team remains in “close contact” with the U.S. government and the Richardson Center, a private organization run by Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, that works to bring detained Americans home. Both the State Department and Richardson “are using all available resources to determine her whereabouts, ensure her safety, and bring her home,” Colas said.

“We are thankful for everyone’s support, and hope that as we near nine months of detention, that BG and all wrongfully detained Americans will be shown mercy and returned home to their families for the holidays.”

Griner’s last contact with anyone from outside the jail was Thursday, when U.S. embassy officials were able to visit her. She last saw her attorneys the day before.

Her family declined to offer a statement late Tuesday in the United States.

Griner pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges in July. U.S. officials declared that Griner was being wrongfully detained in May and have called her trial and appeal political theater. After an appeals court upheld her conviction two weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the decision was “another failure of justice, compounding the injustice of her detention.”

U.S. officials have said they made a “serious” offer to trade for Griner’s freedom in June, but have not yet received what they consider to be a legitimate counteroffer. Officials have said they hoped that Russia would be more inclined to negotiate in good faith once Tuesday’s midterm elections were over, knowing that Vladimir Putin’s government would not want to give President Joe Biden a potential political victory.

Griner was arrested at a Moscow-area airport Feb. 17 while trying to enter Russia to join her club team in Ekaterinburg.

In a statement, her lawyers said, “Neither Brittney’s family, including her wife Cherelle or her Russian legal team will have any further statements or press availability at this time.”

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