Pennsylvania teacher Marc Fogel is coming home after being held nearly four years in a Russian prison on charges of drug trafficking, the White House announced.
Fogel was arrested in 2021 when customs agents at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside of Moscow found half an ounce of marijuana in his luggage, which was prescribed to him to treat chronic back pain. In 2022, Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in a Russian penal colony.
“Today, President Donald J. Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are able to announce that Mr. Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia,” announced White House national security adviser Mike Waltz in a Tuesday statement. “President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.”
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Waltz added in the statement, “By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership.”
Despite being designated as “wrongly detained” last year, Fogel’s family shared that they felt “collectively stabbed in the back” after Fogel was left out of the celebrated prisoner swap that freed reporter Evan GershkovichWall Street Journal and others.
In a statement, Fogel’s wife and two sons shared that they are “beyond grateful, relieved and overwhelmed” that Fogel is “finally coming home.”
Upon Fogel’s release, he was transported out of the country via billionaire real estate mogul Witkoff’s private jet, The New York Times reported.
Witkoff, who serves as special envoy to the Middle East, expanded his scope to broker the deal at Trump’s request, sources told NYT.
It is unclear, however, whether the U.S. had to release someone as part of the deal or what the terms of the negotiations were.
Witkoff has been friends with Trump since the ’80s and the deal was positioned as a gesture of good faith between the U.S. and Russia.
Trump appointed retired three-star Gen. Keith Kellogg as his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia in November, reported the Associated Press.
