Marc Fogel returned to the United States on Tuesday after spending more than three years in prison in Russia, expressing his appreciation to President Trump during an emotional meeting at the White House
“I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now. And I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. And President Trump is a hero. And these men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes,” Fogel said.
“I just will spend the rest of my life in debt to you and the country, and I’m so excited,” he told Trump.
The Trump administration has not specified what it gave up in exchange for Fogel’s release. Trump indicated Fogel was part of a larger prisoner deal, telling reporters, “Somebody else is being released tomorrow that you will know of.”
Both Trump and Fogel thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for facilitating Fogel’s release. Trump would not say if he had spoken directly to Putin.
“I just want to say I appreciate very much what they did in letting Marc go home,” Trump said, calling the terms of the deal “very fair.”
Fogel said Putin “was very generous and statesman-like in granting me a pardon.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Sen. David McCormick (R-Pa.), Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff were among those at the White House to greet Fogel.
Fogel worked for years as a teacher at a school in Moscow, and he had been serving a 14-year prison sentence after he was arrested in 2021.
He had been found carrying cannabis, which his family said he had been prescribed for back pain. Fogel was found guilty in 2022 of “large-scale drugs smuggling.” The Biden administration designated Fogel as being wrongfully detained.
Fogel was not part of a large prisoner swap in August in which the Biden administration secured the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and two other Americans in a deal that also involved the release of five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were being held as political prisoners.
Fogel’s mother met with Trump during a campaign rally last year, where she urged him to bring her son home if he won November’s election.
“He told her then that if he was elected, he was going to get him out,” Fogel’s sister, Anne, told CNN on Tuesday. “And the man was true to his word.”
