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amazing spouse back at home. i never meant to hurt anybody. i never meant to put in jeopardy the russian population. i never meant to break any laws here. i made an honest mistake and i hope that it doesn t end my life here. i know everybody keeps talking about political pawn and politics, but i hope that that is far from this courtroom. i want to say again that i had no intent on breaking any russian laws. i had no intent. i did not conspire or plan to commit this crime. i hope they can take into account all the documents, all the character lists everybody sent in on my behalf. i want to apologize to my teammates and the organization for any damage that i may have done to them. i never intended on hurting them. this is my second home and all i want to do is just win championships and make them proud. cnn senior international correspondent fred pleitgen is outside the courthouse near moscow. fred, visibly emotional, griner, apologizing to the court, taking responsibil ....
But could also go considerably lower than that if there is a sort of leniency. we ll have to wait and see. but it is certainly going to be very interesting to see whether or not any of those mitigating circumstances will be taken into account by the judge, jim. fret pd pleitgen, thanks so much. joining me now is lindsay gibbs and jill dougherty knows russia very well. jill, first, we d be remiss not to mention the political influences on this trial. russia has a history of taking hostages in effect either as bargaining chips for prisoner swaps or just to exert political pressure here. is this a kremlin case? should we look at it that way more than a drug trial in a moscow court? you know, i think it s both. you really would have to say that. if brittney is correct in saying ....