U.S. sought Russia's help to free Austin Tice in first Trump term, ex-envoy says

Politics U.S. sought Russia's help to free journalist Austin Tice in Trump's first term, ex-envoy says By Jennifer Jacobs Jennifer Jacobs Senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs is a senior White House reporter at CBS News. Read Full Bio Jennifer Jacobs June 1, 2026 / 11:22 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — U.S. officials sought help from Russia during President Trump's first term to secure the release of journalist Austin Tice after intelligence indicated that the Marine veteran was likely still alive but numerous leads and a hefty reward hadn't helped locate him.Robert O'Brien, who was a hostage negotiator for the administration at the time and later became Mr. Trump's national security adviser, asked Nikolai Patrushev, the Russian national security adviser, if Russia could use its pull with then-Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to free Tice. "The Russians had long been one of Assad's patrons, and in fact the dictator substantially owed the survival of his regime to Russian military intervention in the civil war in 2015," O'Brien wrote in a new book, which includes previously unreported details on multiple attempts to track down Tice. Patrushev agreed, O'Brien wrote. But "even Assad's allies ran into a brick wall," according to an advance copy of the book that has been circulating inside the Trump administration in digital form and was obtained by CBS News.Tice, a freelance journalist, disappeared in August 2012 while reporting on the Syrian civil war. Weeks later, a short video appeared online that showed a distressed Tice blindfolded with his apparent captors. It was the last time he was seen. Freelance journalist Austin Tice. Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Kash Patel, actor Sean Penn, the Vatican, the king of Jordan, Czech officials, various Gulf states and a Lebanese businessman who claimed he'd met with Tice in person also tried to chase potential leads or backchannel with the murderous Assa...