Nothing should take away from the joy the families of the three Americans released to freedom over the past 36 hours are experiencing at this hour, but one family says that the past two days since the White House announced that they were on their way back to U.S. soil have been "gut wrenching," as their loved one remains detained in a Russian prison cell.
Background:
BREAKING: Russia Releases Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan As Part of Massive Prisoner Exchange
The sister of Pennsylvania schoolteacher Marc Fogel said during an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett that the prisoner swap deal secured by the Biden-Harris administration and U.S. allies should never have "left behind" her brother. As my colleague Nick Arama wrote on coverage of President Joe Biden's mistake-ridden remarks on the returned Americans, Marc "has been held since August 2021 for what he claimed was 17 grams of medical marijuana."
Anne Fogel told Burnett:
The last 36 hours have been gut wrenching. It’s been a roller coaster. No sleep. I feel like we’ve been kind of collectively stabbed in the back.
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The State Department, though, hasn't taken a crucial step in getting him stateside--designating Fogel as a "wrongfully detained person":
The U.S. has called for his release, but they have not designated him a wrongfully detained person yet. This designation, which Whelan and Gershkovich both received, unlocks support from parts of the U.S. government to win the wrongfully detained person’s release.
The Fogels are not happy about that, to put it mildly:
“It’s kind of insult to injury that he still has not been designated as wrongfully detained,” Anne Fogel added. “It’s as if Marc has been deprioritized through this entire process. It’s been one of the most frustrating times of my life not to be heard or taken seriously.”
What has the Biden administration said about his ongoing plight? In not so many words, "it's complicated," as The Hill piece (linked above) reported:
“Well, first I can say that we are working like hell to get Marc Fogel out. I am personally working on it,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. “We’re going to get Marc Fogel out. I can’t get into the specific details because they’re sensitive, but Marc Fogel has been part of the conversation. He is on our agenda. He is a priority for me personally.”
And where do things stand with the president? President Biden has literally given the matter lip service, and during his remarks about the Americans Thursday, The Hill reported, Biden unofficially referred to "Marc Fogel [as] a wrongfully designated person." Oh, and he snapped at reporters on the issue on Friday, for good measure:
Reporters asked Biden about Fogel on Friday, and he responded by saying, “We’re not giving up.” When asked what more he can do, Biden responded, “You want me to tell you ahead of time so he doesn’t get out?”
The situation is all the more heartbreaking when, as Ms. Fogel told NewNation host Chris Cuomo in another interview, "[Marc] doesn't have the Wall Street Journal or the NBA [sic] behind him, so it's been an uphill struggle to get his story told; the travesy of him being left behind is phenomenal."
Let me say right here that I'm not going to forget Marc Fogel, Anne, believe me, even if the people running the Biden-Harris White House seem to already have.
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