The Reed family had previously spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and also made public statements pressuring the Biden administration to secure Reed’s release, which may prove difficult due to souring diplomatic relations amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Reed family protested in front of Resource Connection of Tarrant County in Texas as Biden spoke inside. Biden called them after his speaking engagement.

“[During the call, Biden] kept saying over and over again how horrible he felt that he couldn’t stop [to talk with us],” Trevor’s mother Paula Reed told KTVT. “And he wanted to let us know Trevor is something he thinks about every day. Obviously, better words could not be heard by a mother whose son is there.”

“He said he understand Trevor’s health is very critical and he wants to do whatever he can do to bring him home as soon as possible,” Paula Reed added.

Biden told the family that his staff will arrange a meeting with them in the nation’s capital. The family said they feel confident about Reed’s release even though Russia has since invaded Ukraine, an action strongly condemned by the Biden administration.

Reed was arrested in Moscow in August 2019 over allegations that he assaulted Russian police officers. The officers had picked him up from a party where he had allegedly been drinking heavily. In July 2020, he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Reed’s family say he was detained without evidence and that Russian authorities refused to consider evidence that would’ve helped prove his innocence. Reed’s lawyer called the sentencing extreme, but Russian courts denied an appeal.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow echoed his family’s concerns, stating the two officers involved in the alleged drunken assault were unable to recall the incident in court hearings and also contradicted themselves when recounting what had occurred.

The embassy also protested Reed’s lack of consular access during his hospitalization with COVID-19 in May 2021. Embassy officials said he had been repeatedly denied phone calls to his family or embassy personnel.

In November 2021, Reed reportedly went on a hunger strike to protest his conviction and imprisonment conditions. Reed’s family said he was malnourished, suffering from pain due to a pre-arrest back surgery. The family also said Reed was being held in a small room close to a person with tuberculosis, made to use a hole in the floor for a toilet and was denied books or personal letters.

“Our son is in a Stalin-era Gulag in the middle of the forest somewhere and living literally in something you would see out of a movie,” Trevor Reed’s father Joey Reed said. “He’s generally in solitary confinement. Sometimes, he’ll be in a room with another person, and other times he’s in a very small room with a bed that folds down off the wall. He has to drink out of a faucet of untreated water, and there’s a hole in the floor for a toilet.”

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service told Newsweek that claims of Reed’s detainment conditions and hunger strike “[do] not correspond to reality.”

As tensions mounted leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reed’s family said they worried they’d never see him again if war broke out. Since the invasion began, U.S.-Russian relations have worsened as the U.S. and other Western allied nations issue economic and diplomatic sanctions against Russia.

The cooling relations have made some international observers worry that Russia may try to use prisoners as bargaining chips to ease U.S. sanctions or release Russian prisoners held in the U.S.

In October 2021, the Reed Family signed a public letter, co-signed by the relatives of 26 Americans wrongfully detained in other countries, questioning Biden’s dedication to securing their release.

The letter said that the Biden administration detainees’ release was mired in “burdensome processes or policy debates,” and that their families were kept “uninformed of what you can and cannot do to help us.”

Though some of the family members had discussed their cases in a February 2021 virtual call with Blinken, the families said they had been unable to meet with Biden or his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, since then.

“We need to be shown that the promises of your administration to prioritize the return of our family members are not empty,” the letter said. “Now is the time for action. Now we need you to bring our fellow Americans home.”

Newsweek contacted the White House for comment.