Viktor Bout discusses prisoner swap with Brittney Griner | ABCNL

foreign with us will ESPN secured an exclusive interview with Russian Victor Booth the so-called Merchant of death you'll remember he was involved in that prisoner exchange right here he was swapped for WNBA star Brittany Greiner a boot was serving a 25-year sentence in the United States at the penitentiary in Marion Illinois maximum security there after being convicted in 2011 on four felony counts here's his conversation with ESPN's TJ Quinn she was convicted for trafficking 0.7 grams of cannabis oil you were convicted for conspiracy to kill Americans trying to sell arms to a terrorist organization and you saw that there was a great deal of outrage from some in this country what do you say to them well think of this that the same outrage was in Russia when I was sentenced to 25 years many people would say for what just for talking are you serious boot maintains his innocence and says he never intended to sell the weapons but when the undercover agents told him that the weapons would be used against U.S Pilots boot responded we have the same enemy there is no even a profession of the term of conspiracy we don't have such even the legal term how did you identify with her and what she might be going through at the time feel you know bad or sorry for any person gonna be used as a poem despite whether they committed something or not you feel that that once she was arrested she she became a pawn I don't think we were even able to to know all the facts but definitely that the normal person has to pay a price because politicians from the bull side trying to play chess this big chessboard which they call geopolitics do you remember when you first saw Brittany Greiner on the tarmac the middle class little shock of seeing her without you know her signature you know braids she was way taller than me and you know I just checked the hands and I said I wish you good luck and we almost went to our you know planes that is just wild ESPN staff writer TJ Quinn joins us now for more so TJ I I first of all let's start with how you landed this interview apparently Victor boot uh loves ESPN I don't know if I'd say loves I'm not sure how much Choice he had and what he got to watch when he was Marion um but he did uh we reached out to someone close to him uh just under that old journalistic principle you never know unless you asked uh got back to us that he yes was familiar with our reporting and and was interested in talking um but I think you know because of of her connection to to the WNBA for sports uh our network was you know probably I think gave more hours to that coverage than to that topic than anybody else and and that's what he saw so he was I guess at least comfortable with the way we'd uh we'd approach the story you know and TJ I was struck by by what he told you there that that he was in prison just for talking while he was talking about selling weapons to kill American Pilots eventually shoot down American military aircraft in Colombia so there's some kind of talk that in fact can be criminal fixing prices in a hotel room selling weapons to terrorists I mean those are criminal experiences but what what did you get from from his description of his experience in prison and the charges against him yeah a lot of what he focused on are things that he's talked about since the time he was arrested all the way back in 2008 in Thailand um saying hey look I was largely out of the arms trafficking business at that point um he's always said it was a small part of his Air Cargo transport but there were warrants for him issued by Belgium by the United Kingdom the United States um the UN had him on watch list uh and at that point his life he had said that he really couldn't travel much and wasn't too interested in in being in that line of work anymore he's complained how could the DEA in the United States The Drug Enforcement Administration come after someone accused of arms trafficking and arrest them in Thailand and there was a great deal of outrage in Russia about that even some Thai officials uh were very uncomfortable with it um but the fact is he was convicted by a jury of of Americans in a federal court um judge Sheindlin sure at the time was the the judge overseeing his case did say during sentencing if they hadn't gone after him there's no reason to believe that he would have done this but his story has always been hey look I had two old airplanes I was trying to unload these guys you know were interested in buying them so when they asked about weapons I kept saying anything just to keep them on the line the way any other businessman would hmm well it looks quite different in the Hawaiian Tommy Bahama type shirt versus uh the orange jumpsuit TJ a great interview really riveting great job thanks so much for joining us hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to 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