Wife of American detained in Afghanistan heads to Mar-a-Lago to beg Trump to take up prisoner swap
EXCLUSIVE: A wife desperate to bring her husband home from 2½ years of wrongful detainment in Afghanistan has flown to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to implore President-elect Trump to take up her case.
Ryan Corbett was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2022 just as the U.S. was pulling out of the country, and Anna Corbett says she has been trying to get a meeting with the Biden administration ever since.
This week, Anna saw a glimmer of hope when reports broke that the Biden administration has been negotiating with the Taliban to swap three U.S. citizens being held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner alleged to have been a close associate of Usama bin Laden.
But that deal has seemingly stalled. A senior Taliban official told The Guardian the Taliban would rather wait to negotiate with the incoming Trump administration, shattering the hopes of the Corbett family.
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"I am absolutely desperate to fight for my family," Anna Corbett told Fox News Digital Friday during a layover on her last-minute flight to Mar-a-Lago.
She isn’t sure whether the last-ditch attempt will work. The Trump team has not yet set up a meeting.
"Wouldn’t it be amazing if I got a meeting in one day, when, for 883 days, I tried to get a meeting with President Biden, and he didn’t have the time?" she said.
Trump told Fox News’ Peter Doocy he would consider a prisoner swap but seemed skeptical.
"I haven't looked at it," Trump said Thursday. "I have not been in favor of the trade, but I'll be taking a look tomorrow. We'll announce something tomorrow."
The talks, which have been ongoing since at least July 2024, involve exchanging suspected senior al Qaeda aide Muhammad Rahim al Afghani for U.S. citizens Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmoud Habibi, who were detained in Afghanistan in 2022.
Some Republicans in Congress privately voiced national security concerns over returning Rahim to the Taliban and questioned whether the negotiations had resulted in a bad deal.
"Ryan is an amazing person, and he has done nothing wrong, and our family desperately needs him," Anna Corbett said, imploring the U.S. government to accept the deal. "He's a patriot. He was just trying to help the Afghan people, and this is a decision that the president needs to make. And we are just desperate for Ryan to come home alive as soon as possible."
Glezmann and Ryan Corbett have been declared by the State Department as wrongfully detained, and the Taliban denies holding Habibi.
Anna Corbett said she last spoke to her husband Christmas Day for about 15 minutes.
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"He was obviously trying hard to be in good spirits for Christmas for the kids and I," she said. "But it was a difficult call, obviously, because this has been going on so long.
"He asked me where things were at, if there was progress. And there really was nothing that I could share with him."
In 2024, two released American detainees revealed Ryan Corbett was severely malnourished, was experiencing blackouts and fainting and was being held in a basement cell with almost no sunlight or exercise.
Anna Corbett said that since then her husband has gained some weight but still experiences constant headaches and ringing in his ears.
Ryan Corbett was abducted Aug. 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living during the collapse of the U.S.-backed government there a year before.
He arrived in Afghanistan on a valid 12-month visa to pay and train staff as part of a business venture he led aimed at promoting Afghanistan's private sector through consulting services and lending.
Despite the detentions, the U.S. remains the largest financial supporter of Afghanistan, having offered the nation around $3 billion since the 2021 withdrawal.
The Taliban have long sought the release of Rahim, who has been held at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba since 2008 because the Pentagon believes he was a close associate of bin Laden.
In November 2023, the Guantánamo Bay prison review board cited Rahim’s work for senior al Qaeda members and his participation in attacks on U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan as reasons to keep him in custody.
Biden has long been intent on closing the Guantánamo Bay prison. On Monday, he announced the transfer of 11 Yemeni detainees, including two former bodyguards of bin Laden, from Guantanamo to Oman, which has agreed to help resettle them.
Fox News' Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.