On 2/12/2025, Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher who had been held in Russia since 2021, arrived back on U.S. soil after the White House announced earlier in the day it had negotiated his release. He was then taken to the White House, where he was greeted outside on the North Portico by President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, among others. In a briefing with reporters alongside Mr. Trump in the Diplomatic Reception Room in the White House, Fogel said, “I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now.” He called the president “a hero” for facilitating his return.

“I’m a middle-class school teacher who’s now in a dream world,” Fogel said. At the White House, Mr. Trump greeted Fogel and gave him and Witkoff a tour of the Lincoln Bedroom. Fogel was serving a 14-year sentence in Russia and was designated as “wrongfully detained” by the U.S. late last year. Fogel had spent more than three years in Russia after being sentenced to 14 years in prison for a minor medical cannabis infraction. He was traveling to Russia in 2021 to work at a Moscow school when he was detained. “I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all,” Fogel said at the White House on Tuesday night. “And President Trump is a hero. These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes.”

Marc Fogel, an American citizen freed after being wrongfully detained in Russian since 2021, speaks at the White House — his first remarks on American soil.
WELCOME HOME!

Trump greets Marc Fogel at the White House — an American citizen FREED after being wrongly detained in a Russian prison since 2021.
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT.

https://www.facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/1375405493813715
Trump greets Marc Fogel, an American citizen FREED detained since 2021; PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT