Trump meets Stephen Hubbard at the White House after his release from Russian prison

Washington — President Trump met Stephen Hubbardthe American recently released from a Russian prison, at the White House on Friday.

Inviting reporters to join them in the Oval Office, the president called Hubbard “a very special man” who “suffered a lot.” CBS News was the first to announce the reunion plans.

Hubbard was imprisoned in Russia for more than four years after being accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher, returned home to the United States last week.

Mr. Trump told Hubbard: “I think I could say you’ve been treated reasonably well, right? Hubbard said “yes” and was even treated “sympathetically by some of the guards.”

Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News’ senior White House reporter, asked Hubbard about the moment he learned he was being released.

“I had heard it many times before and I reached the state where seeing is believing,” Hubbard said. “Actions speak louder than words. I never trusted what they said. Only when they started giving me new clothes and driving me out of the prison. I went out and saw the car and there were two Russians with me. Then I believed, I finally believed, on the drive from Moscow to St. Petersburg, ‘I’m really going somewhere.'”

Hubbard said he wouldn’t have lived another year in that prison.

Hubbard’s release was announced during a meeting between the US special envoy Steve Wittkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.

Mr. Trump said there was no “trade” for Hubbard, but he appeared to link Hubbard’s release to his decision to exempt Russia from sanctions adopted by Congress.

“We were in the middle of negotiations,” the president told reporters last week. “And a lot of stupid people said, and people who don’t know how life works, they said, ‘Why don’t you put sanctions on Russia and all that’ in the middle of a negotiation to try to get a long-time hostage back from Russia. If I had done that, you wouldn’t have Mr. Hubbard coming back.”

The president has not reimposed these sanctions since Hubbard’s release.