Casey: State Dept., Biden silence on Marc Fogel's Russian imprisonment is intolerable

WASHINGTON — The State Department isn’t doing enough to bring Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel home, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, told TribLive.

“I believe the administration’s outreach to and communication with the family has been unacceptable. They simply haven’t done enough of it,” Casey said.

Fogel, 62, was sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison for possession of medical marijuana that was prescribed legally in Pennsylvania.

In an interview at his Washington office, Casey spoke about his meetings with Fogel’s family. He has sat in the Butler living room of Fogel’s mom, Malphine, 95. On Wednesday, Fogel’s son Ethan, 27, visited Casey’s office.

“What I’m particularly frustrated by is the failure to have more regular engagement with the family and to answer the basic questions,” Casey said.

Fogel’s family struggles to get information about his condition. He makes phone calls facilitated by the State Department when possible, but Malphine Fogel has gone weeks without hearing about her son. On July 13, she heard from him while he was hospitalized for the fourth time since his incarceration.

Marc Fogel taught diplomats’ children at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He was arrested in August 2021. The Russian government designated the school a foreign agent last year. It closed in May 2023.

Fogel’s story has been a rare bipartisan gathering point for House and Senate legislators, but the Biden administration, including the State Department, has been less vocal about his case. While Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan are frequently discussed by officials, Fogel is not.

Casey thinks that’s wrong.

“There should be much more frequent public acknowledgement of this case and his detention and the egregious nature of it,” he said. “It’s not enough just to say they’re working on it or it’s a priority. There must be more public recognition of either those efforts or the importance of this case.”

Public attention on the 2022 case of WNBA star Brittney Griner brought regular comments from State Department and White House officials and ultimately resulted in a prisoner swap that brought the basketball player home in time for Christmas.

The difference in information and comment gives the impression of different priorities for Fogel and his more high-profile counterparts, Casey said.

“That’s the message that this family, or any family, would take from that,” Casey said. “There is a failure to acknowledge and failure to have more regular engagement.”

The State Department and White House do not bring Fogel’s name up. TribLive editorials have pushed the administration to say Fogel’s name since 2022.

But there is another issue. The State Department will not address the “wrongfully detained” status granted to Griner, Gershkovich and Whelan but not to Fogel.

Does Casey believe Fogel should get that designation? He’s not saying that.

“I’m limited. I’m not a diplomat. I don’t know enough about the interplay between wrongful detention designation versus another pathway,” he said.

Casey has seen classified briefings on the Fogel case and cannot discuss them. What he does believe is that Fogel needs to be a priority regardless of whether he is designated wrongfully detained.

“We need to push for there to be a pathway for him to be released, whether it’s wrongful detention or some other pathway. We just need to get him out,” Casey said, calling the situation “intolerable.”

The State Department has called on Russia to release Fogel for “humanitarian reasons.” Russia has declined that for three years and has no track record of humanitarian appeals. The State Department itself details Russia’s human rights “atrocities and abuses.” It specifically calls out “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions” and a history of imprisoning or detaining people for political leverage.

Fogel has a well-documented history of pain and surgeries to his back, knee, hip and shoulder. The family has released X-ray evidence from a Moscow medical center. The medical marijuana he took was a last resort to avoid opioids.

But Malphine Fogel expressed concern for her son’s condition after his most recent hospitalization, worried the limited medications he could receive were doing damage to his organs. Many over-the-counter drugs can have detrimental effects on the liver, kidneys or stomach, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

Casey believes the threat to Fogel’s health makes his case more important and the Biden administration needs to do more.

“There’s no excuse for the way they’ve handled this. No explanation makes sense for the way they’ve engaged with the family — or I should say not engaged. Even the way they’ve engaged vis-a-vis Marc himself,” Casey said.