The former Marine was released last month and spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper about his life behind bars in a Russian prison.
The last time the world saw Trevor Reed, he appeared frail as he was finally released from a Russian prison last month following three years in captivity. Now, he has now broken his silence to CNN’s Jake Tapper about the unimaginable horror he faced.
“The psychiatric treatment facility, I was in there with seven other prisoners in a cell. They all had severe, psychological health issues — most of 'em. So over 50 percent of them in that cell were in there for murder. Or, like, multiple murders, sexual assault and murder. Just really disturbed individuals,” he said.
He told Tapper some nights he was too terrified to sleep in fear that he might be killed.
He also detailed the deplorable conditions such as blood “all over the walls” where he said prisoners “had killed themselves or other prisoners.”
He added that the toilet was just a hole in the floor.
Reed, a former Marine guard at the White House during the Obama administration, was arrested in 2019 in Moscow, while visiting his girlfriend and studying Russian for college credit. He became intoxicated at a party and Russian police say he got into a drunken brawl.
“They asked me ‘what happened?’ I told them, ‘I don’t know. I don’t remember what happened. I was drunk at a party with Lena,’” he recalled.
His parents believe he was set up by Russian authorities and fought for years to bring Trevor home.
While in prison, the former Eagle Scout caught COVID and Tuberculosis. Ironically, he says he survived by not allowing himself to have hope.
“I kind of viewed … having hope as being a weakness, I did not wanna have that hope of, like, me, you know, being released somehow and then have that taken from me,” he said.
