Klobuchar’s office said Jacob, who hails from the town of Winona, was arrested by Russian forces while trying to flee Ukraine and held for 10 days. He was teaching English in Ukraine when the invasion began, according to CNN’s subsidiary WCCO. A State Department spokesman told CNN: “We know of these reports, but for the sake of confidentiality we have no further comment.” Jacob’s mother, Tina Hauser, told CNN’s Don Lemon on Friday night that he had managed to talk to her son on a video conference. “He looked very tired, but he looked very good,” he said. “You hear the relief in his voice.” Jacob’s father, John Quinn, told CNN that his son told him he had not been mistreated while in custody in Russia, but that he was “very relieved” to be back home. “It was an amusement park train,” Quinn said. “It was more or less the obstacles we had to overcome to bring him to safety.” Quinn added that Jacob had said “he was treated very well there. He had no complaints about how he was treated”. Klobuchar did not give Lemon details about how the United States secured Jacob’s release, but said it was through efforts led by the US embassy in Moscow. Jacob’s parents said they did not know how long it would take him to return to the United States. “It could not be better than when I first heard his voice,” Hauser said. “It sounded like angels singing in my ear, listening to his voice. It will be astronomical, the emotions that will flow inside me when I get to hug my son for the first time.” CNN’s Shawna Mizelle contributed to this report.
