Marc Fogel’s family ‘overjoyed’ at release from prison
The Fogel family is ‘overjoyed’ at the release of Butler native Marc Fogel from Russian prison Tuesday, Feb. 11.
“We kept hoping, but it seemed to get further and further away. We prayed a lot. My entire family prayed his way out of there,” Malphine Fogel, Marc’s mother, said during a press conference.
Malphine and sister Anne Fogel, alongside lawyer Sasha Phillips, hosted a press conference Tuesday evening.
Malphine stated that her thanks is with President Trump, who she believes was instrumental in Marc’s release.
“We are eternally grateful for his efforts with Dave McCormick, Mike Kelly and Guy Reschenthaler. I think they all had a hand in it,” Malphine said.
Marc Fogel isn’t getting a moment to rest on his first day back on American soil.
It was reported by national news media, Fogel is expected to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House, shortly after disembarking from the flight that will have brought him home from Russia, where he has been detained since 2021.
Fogel’s plane will touch down at Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington D.C. this evening.
Fogel’s release was announced by the White House on Tuesday morning, bringing an end to years of campaigning by the Fogel family to bring the 63-year-old Butler native back home.
Fogel’s imprisonment began in August 2021, when he returned to his job in Moscow to teach American history. Authorities at Sheremetyevo Airport arrested him for possession of medicinal marijuana, which he took routinely for chronic pain. Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and it took until October 2024 for the U.S. State Department to officially declare him “unlawfully detained.”
