CNN’s Dana Bash offered up a new wacky conspiracy theory about Russia and its arrest of now-convicted drug smuggler Brittney Griner, an American WNBA player.

The Daily Wire reports:

The Biden administration is reportedly attempting to obtain a release for Griner and also U.S. citizen and former Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested on espionage charges, by trading them for Russian weapons trafficker Viktor Bout, was convicted on terrorism in 2011 after attempting to sell missiles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in order to shoot down U.S. military helicopters.

…

CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood noted, “I do think it’s important to note that administration officials are saying that when it comes to a potential prisoner swap to get Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan and other Americans who’s wrongfully detained in the country, to get them release, that the ball is in Russia’s court now.”

Bash turned to CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen, to make her intersectional point: “Fred, since you have been in touch with the defense for all these months, let’s just get real. How much of this is because she is a six-foot-nine, black, lesbian American?”

Pleitgen gave her support, saying, “Well, I think that the last part, especially being an American is obviously one of the big issues and certainly something that may have led to a tougher verdict here. Of course — we, of course, always have to say that, you know, especially someone who is lesbian or gay here in Russia has a really, really tough time.”