BUTLER, Pennsylvania — “He’s coming home, he’s coming home.”
Those were the words of Malphine Fogel, the mother of Marc Fogel, a western Pennsylvania teacher who was arrested in Russia in 2021 and sentenced to 14 years in a hard labor camp in 2022. He was imprisoned there until Tuesday, when President Donald Trump‘s administration secured his release.
Sean Parnell, a western Pennsylvania native who was recently named assistant secretary of defense by Trump, recalled being with Malphine Fogel when she met with the president ahead of his July 13 rally in her family’s hometown of Butler. He promised her at the end of the meeting, “We will get your son back.”
After earning Trump’s promise, Parnell said Malphine Fogel exited the meeting and joined the crowd dancing to Kid Rock’s “American Badass, “which was pretty awesome to see a 90-year-old woman do.”
Mike Kelly, the Butler County Republican congressman who has been a constant in trying to secure Marc Fogel’s release, marveled at his mother’s optimism after her meeting with Trump.
“Malphine was given the gift of hope and purpose that day, and she held on to it,” said Kelly, who has known the Fogel family for decades.
Kelly praised the Pennsylvania delegation for working together for the family and the upper chamber of the Senate, which in June passed a bipartisan resolution calling for Marc Fogel’s release.
Since he graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Marc Fogel has spent his career teaching the children of American diplomats around the world in places such as Colombia, Malaysia, Oman, Venezuela, and Russia.
He was sentenced in 2022 after he was arrested on charges of possessing medical marijuana, which was prescribed by a doctor in the United States for back pain.
After missing so much time with his sons, Marc Fogel’s mother filed a lawsuit against then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken last June, saying he failed to designate her son as “wrongfully detained.”
That designation finally came in the waning days of the Biden administration on Dec. 26, 2024, when it was moved to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs within the State Department.
Sen. David McCormick (R-PA), who has hosted Malphine Fogel at his home and even sat beside her at the July 13 rally in Butler, said, like the rest of the delegation, Marc Fogel’s release has been a top priority.
“It was one of the questions I asked Marco Rubio when he was seeking confirmation as secretary of state and something we have discussed since then,” he said.
U.S. Envoy for Hostages Ambassador Adam Boehler posted a photo on X of Marc Fogel in a grey sweatshirt, holding a plate of fruit and cheese, his passport, and what everyone hoped was a stiff drink in his glass.
Sen. John Fetterman (PA), a Braddock Democrat, said on X, “Marc Fogel’s return home is long overdue and I know all of Pennsylvania, especially his family will be welcoming him back.”
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Twenty-two days after being sworn in, Trump kept the promise he made to Malphine Fogel. McCormick said, “Isn’t that something.”
Kelly added, “After everything that happened that day, he never forgot. It is providential.”