After President Joe Biden proved the claim wrong on Thursday by securing the release of Gershkovich and others in a multi-country prisoner exchange, Trump posted a series of skeptical questions on social media. Among other things, Trump wrote: “Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs? FactCheck.org debunked this Trump claim about his record on securing the release of American prisoners abroad when he previously made it in 2022. Trump acknowledged at the time that this was a prisoner exchange, telling reporters in 2019: “Yeah, we’re very happy to have our hostage back. And there was a one-on-one hostage swap.”Federal prosecutors also dropped charges against the Iranian scientist’s two co-defendants soon after the prisoner exchange.

---

Persons: Donald Trump, Evan Gershkovich, Joe Biden, Gershkovich, Trump, ’, Jake Sullivan, FactCheck.org, –, Xiyue Wang, Kevin King, Timothy Weeks, Michael White, Sandra Loli, Mikael Gidada, Turkey Trump, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Andrew Brunson, Erdogan, Brunson Organizations: Washington CNN —, Wall Street, Biden White House, Trump, Republican, Princeton University, Navy Locations: Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Oman, Turkey, Israel, Turkish