Marc Fogel's mother requests meeting with Trump in effort to free son from Russian prison

Malphine Fogel said pleas to President Joe Biden to get her son, Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel, released from a Russian prison have gone nowhere.

That’s why the Butler County woman says she’s now looking for help from former President Donald Trump, who will be campaigning in Butler this weekend.

“As the matriarch of the Fogel family, I am respectfully asking former President Trump, Republican nominee for president, to meet with me on Marc’s behalf while he will be in Butler this Saturday,” Malphine Fogel said in a video released Wednesday.

“I am hoping that President Trump will take the time to understand the importance of America standing behind a teacher from a regular family in a small town (in) Pennsylvania and express support for designating Marc as wrongfully detained and bringing him home as the Biden administration did with (WNBA star) Brittney Griner and as President Trump has committed to do with (Wall Street Journal reporter) Evan Gershkovich.”

Marc Fogel, 63, was arrested at a Russian airport in August 2021 for possession of 17 grams of medical marijuana. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in June 2022.

Malphine Fogel, 95, said she plans to attend Trump’s event on Saturday.

“It’s rare that he comes to Butler,” Malphine Fogel said in an interview with TribLive. “That’s a rare occasion. I think we have to do it when he’s here. I don’t know when he’ll ever come back to Butler. I think it’s important that he hears from the family.”

She said the event would be a good opportunity to bring attention to her son’s plight.

“(Marc Fogel) doesn’t get the publicity, and I think that’s what he needs,” Malphine Fogel said. “I just hope, I think, there will be a good turnout. This is a pretty strong Republican county, and I think (Trump will) get a good turnout.”

Malphine Fogel said Biden and his administration have ignored the family’s pleas to meet to discuss Marc’s case. She said her son’s condition has deteriorated while in prison.

In the three years Marc Fogel has been detained, his family has exhausted many options to try to help him. They have lobbied members of Congress and worked with attorneys. The U.S. Senate in June unanimously passed a resolution calling for Marc Fogel’s release and declaring the Russian government gave him a disproportionate criminal sentence.

On June 18, Malphine Fogel filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State to demand the government treat her son’s case the same as it treated others, including Griner.

Malphine Fogel said at a June news conference that her family has three goals: to force those in power to say Marc Fogel’s name, to have the U.S. State Department designate him as wrongfully detained and to bring him home from Russia.