by Sharon Rondeau
(Feb. 12, 2025) — At approximately midnight Tuesday, President Trump posted a video on his TruthSocial account of American citizen and Pennsylvania resident Marc Fogel, who was released earlier in the day from imprisonment in Russia, arriving at the White House after the long trip home.
A steady snow fell as Trump, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, constitutional attorney Jonathan Turley and a number of others emerged from the White House North Portico to greet Fogel and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who secured Fogel’s release along with Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler.
A photo posted two hours earlier on Trump’s timeline depicted Fogel’s initial deplaning at Joint Base Andrews, crossing his hands over his chest and kissing the ground beneath his feet, which was covered with a light coating of snow.
The caption under the photos reads, “Welcome home, Marc Fogel.”
Wearing an American flag around his neck, Fogel greeted the president, Johnson, Turley and the other members of the group, then began to speak about his ordeal and a “scrapbook” in which he placed letters received from some of those present. The group then entered the White House and proceeded to the Diplomatic Reception Room.
“I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now,” Fogel said as he stood next to the president in the center of the room. “…and I want you to know that I am not a hero, at all…and President Trump is a hero…these men, who came from the Diplomatic Service, are heroes…Senators and representatives who passed legislation in my honor to get me home are the heroes. I’m in awe of what they all did…I think my 95-year-old mother is probably the most dynamic 95-year-old on earth right now, and I am so indebted to so many people…”
The “Marc Fogel Act” was introduced in 2023 by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA14) but was not passed into law. Its purpose was “To amend the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act to require the Secretary of State to submit to Congress information relating to cases of United States nationals detained abroad in which the Secretary has not made a determination or has determined that there is not credible information that the individuals are being detained unlawfully or wrongfully.”
Fogel and his wife Jane were fulfilling the last year of a ten-year teaching commitment at the Anglo-American School in Moscow when upon their arrival, Fogel was detained for possessing 17 grams of marijuana which he and his attorney said was prescribed for medicinal purposes.
He was charged with and convicted in June 2022 of “drug smuggling and drug possession” and received a 14-year sentence. At that time, CBS reported, his relatives were gravely concerned about his health and ability to survive harsh conditions at the “hard-labor colony” to which he was transferred approximately four months after his conviction.
Fogel’s mother, Malphine Fogel, a Butler, PA resident, was reached for comment by Fox News once Waltz announced word of her son’s impending return to the U.S. She was scheduled to speak about his plight at the July 13, 2024 campaign event, precluded from doing so by the attempt on Trump’s life by Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Mrs. Fogel had sued the Biden State Department for failing to classify her son as “wrongfully detained,” which would have enabled the agency to initiate negotiations for his release.
On December 27, 2024, the State Department gave Fogel that designation, which “typically transfers oversight of a detainee’s case to the State Department’s Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, an office dedicated to negotiating the release of hostages and Americans deemed wrongfully detained abroad,” Newsweek reported in December.
Fogel was reportedly released in a swap for a Russian “cybercriminal and crypto fraudster” imprisoned in the U.S. but not yet sentenced, CBS reported.