White House blasts “sham” process in Russia’s detention of U.S. reporter

The United States is unhappy with Russia’s latest rejection of an appeal from an imprisoned journalist. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain jailed on espionage charges until at least late June. This, after a Moscow court rejected his appeal that sought to end his pretrial detention. Reaction from White House national security spokesman John Kirby called it a “sham process” and said Gershkovich “is a reporter; he’s not a spy, he’s not a criminal.” Gershkovich was detained more than a year ago.