Ellen Keelan, middle, and different members of the family rally exterior the White Home for the discharge of Marc Fogel, detained in Russia since August 2021, on July 15, 2023.
Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
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Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
The Trump administration says it negotiated a deal to get American Marc Fogel out of jail in Russia. Fogel was a trainer in Russia and was arrested in August 2021 after customs brokers discovered medical marijuana in his baggage.
Nationwide Safety Adviser Mike Waltz stated in an announcement on Tuesday that Fogel, 63, had been launched in what he referred to as “an trade” with Russia and was on his means again to the US.
Trump’s Center East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Russia to convey Fogel house.
“We’re completely in celebration, main aid mode,” Fogel’s sister Anne Fogel tells NPR.
Their mom, Malphine Fogel, 95, who lives in Pennsylvania, stored elevating the case — together with straight with President Trump whereas he was on the marketing campaign path.
“My mom spoke to President Trump shortly earlier than he was shot in Butler,” Anne Fogel says, referring to the July 13, 2024, assassination try at a marketing campaign rally in Pennsylvania. “And he informed her then that he would he would get my brother out, and and I give him nice credit score. He was true to his phrase.”
Fogel had been handed over throughout earlier prisoner swaps with Russia. It was solely final yr that the State Division determined that he was being “unjustly detained” — a designation that gave extra urgency to his case. There have been no fast particulars about what the U.S. gave to Russia to safe Fogel’s launch.
Waltz referred to as Fogel’s launch an indication of fine religion from Moscow — and, with out explaining it, related this to diplomacy on Ukraine, calling the deal “an indication we’re shifting in the precise course to finish the brutal and horrible struggle in Ukraine.”
The Fogel household launched an announcement thanking President Trump for securing his launch, saying, “We’re past grateful, relieved and overwhelmed that after greater than three years of detention, our father, husband and son, Marc Fogel, is lastly coming house.”
