On Aug. 14, 2021, Russian authorities arrested Oakmont native Marc Fogel, a teacher who had done several stints educating American ex-pats in Moscow, for carrying a small amount of legal-in America medical marijuana into the country.
Three and a half years later — after innumerable pleas from this newspaper, Pennsylvania politicians and above all his devoted 95-year-old mother, Malphine — Fogel’s nightmare is over.
He’s home.
This moment represents the joyful culmination of years of advocacy by the Fogel family, led by the indomitable Malphine. Her pleas, echoed time and again by Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation, ensured that Marc Fogel’s name was never forgotten in Washington, even as the bureaucracy seemed to treat him as an afterthought.
The story of how Fogel became a priority for the Trump administration, meanwhile, is nothing short of cinematic.
Malphine Fogel met Donald Trump, along with then-Senate candidate Dave McCormick, on July 13, 2024. It was in the staging area for the Butler rally where the former president would be shot only moments later. Ms. Fogel was in the front row, and witnessed the entire scene unfold.
The events of that day forged a bond between Ms. Fogel and Trump, who consistently promised to secure Marc’s release. Malphine also formed a relationship with McCormick, who told a Post-Gazette editor on Tuesday that he kept up with her during the campaign. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, McCormick’s first question to Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio was about bringing Marc Fogel home.
McCormick credited a bipartisan effort — including his colleague Sen. John Fetterman, who joined him in headlining a letter to Rubio on Jan. 23 — for keeping Mr. Fogel “front of mind for key people” in Washington. But above all, it was the Fogel family “fighting for him from day one” that made their reunion possible.
The speed with which President Trump fulfilled his promise to secure Mr. Fogel’s release is an undeniable indictment of the Biden administration’s dawdling. While Biden’s State Department wrung its hands for years over whether to designate Fogel as “wrongfully detained,” when he clearly fulfilled the criteria under the relevant law, the 63-year-old teacher languished in a Russian prison camp.
Given Fogel’s age and health, the 14-year prison sentence handed down in 2022 was tantamount to a death sentence.
Biden’s major prisoner swap last August, which included journalists Even Gershkovich and Vladimir Kara-Murza, was a historic diplomatic feat. But it also represented unfinished business. Only in late December did Fogel finally receive his “wrongfully detained” designation.
It took Trump, along with special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, to seal the deal.
The details of that deal are, as of this writing, not known. While the White House’s statement refers to an “exchange,” it is not clear exactly what the United States exchanged for Fogel. This does leave a (very) small cloud over the news: There should be some disclosure of the terms of the deal, to dispel any fears the U.S. promised or gave up something it shouldn’t have.
Regardless, it is always in America’s interest, and demonstrates American strength, to use the nation’s enormous reserves of leverage to mitigate the suffering of Americans who are being mistreated by rogue governments.
Now it’s time to celebrate a Fogel family reunion — and the fulfillment of justice — delayed for far too long. Welcome home, Marc.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TNS
