{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2024/12/30/daines-commends-designation-of-marc-fogel-as-wrongfully-detained-demands-immediate-release/", "Daines Commends Designation of Marc Fogel as \u201cWrongfully Detained,\u201d Demands Immediate Release", "2024-12-30", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "MT", "Steve Daines", "D000618", "www.daines.senate.gov", "daines", "https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Fogel, A Schoolteacher, Has Montana Ties\n\nU.S. Senator Steve Daines today commended the U.S. State Department for finally heeding his calls to designate U.S. citizen Marc Fogel as \u201cwrongfully detained\u201d by the Russian government and renewed his demand for Fogel to be immediately released. Fogel has family in Montana and is currently serving a 12-year sentence of hard labor in a Russian prison for possession of marijuana.\n\n\u201cMarc Fogel just spent his fourth Christmas serving an unjust 14-year sentence of hard labor in a Russian prison because he was \u2018convicted\u2019 of outrageous drug trafficking charges,\u201d said Daines. \u201cThe State Department finally acknowledged what we have always known: that Marc\u2019s arrest was politically motivated and President Biden should have immediately designated him as wrongfully detained in 2021. He should be released immediately.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nDaines will serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 119th Congress, which will be sworn in Friday.\n\nThe designation of \u201cwrongfully detained\u201d means Fogel\u2019s case will now be transferred to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department.\n\nSenator Daines introduced a bipartisan resolution demanding Russia release Fogel.\n\nDaines also called for Fogel\u2019s release on the Senate floor in July 2023.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2024/12/30/daines-commends-designation-of-marc-fogel-as-wrongfully-detained-demands-immediate-release/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9216573089361191, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}