Vice President Kamala Harris (D) has added her brother-in-law Tony West, who defended a convicted terrorist, to her campaign as an adviser.
West is also a former Obama Justice Department attorney, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Friday.
“Vice President Kamala Harris has a “powerful” new campaign adviser: her brother-in-law Tony West, the former Obama Justice Department attorney who **defended** a convicted terrorist sentenced to 20 years in prison for fighting with the Taliban and colluding with al-Qaeda.” pic.twitter.com/wdGKrEHxhx
— We Have It All (@WeAreWoke1776_3) August 2, 2024
The Free Beacon noted:
West in 2002 signed on to defend “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan one year earlier and subsequently indicted for providing services to the Taliban and al-Qaeda—and for conspiring to murder Americans. During the trial, West—then an attorney at the San Francisco law firm Morrison & Foerster, which was known for defending enemy combatants detained by the United States—dismissed claims that Lindh was a terrorist.
“He is not a terrorist,” West said of Lindh during a 2002 Washington Post interview. “He did not go to Afghanistan to kill Americans.” Lindh, who also goes by Sulayman al-Faris and Abu Sulayman al-Irlandi, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. He has refused to renounce his Islamic extremist ideologies.
In May 2019, Lindh wrote letters to reporters and authors praising Afghan Taliban jihad and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) which prompted recipients to label him unrepentant after his release into American communities, according to Breitbart News.
He initially expressed remorse about jointing the Taliban but later said he was proud “to take part in the Afghan jihad,” the outlet said.
Kamala Harris adds brother-in-law who represented ‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh to campaign team https://t.co/5zmDXQlOAM pic.twitter.com/saxDyfjq1O
— New York Post (@nypost) August 3, 2024
“Lindh’s early release comes about three years before the end of his 20-year-jail stint, courtesy of a plea agreement,” the article noted.
In reaction to his release in 2019, then President Donald Trump said, “I don’t like it at all,” Breitbart News reported.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) nominated Harris as the party’s presidential candidate. According to Breitbart News, the move ignored the 14 million Democrats who voted for President Joe Biden (D) in the primary.
Breitbart News noted:
The expeditious coronation underscored the speed at which Democrats moved to coronate Harris, who has received exactly zero presidential primary votes in her political career. Harris dropped out of the 2020 presidential race before the Iowa caucuses and did not enter the race in 2024 until Biden endorsed her.
Former President Barack Obama’s (D) campaign mastermind, David Plouffe, is also joining Harris’s presidential campaign, taking up the role of senior adviser, according to Breitbart News.