Vice President Kamala Harris’ brother-in-law, who once notoriously defended the “American Taliban,” has reportedly joined her restructured campaign.
Tony West, 58, will serve as a “powerful advisor” to Harris’ presidential campaign. According to AxiosThe move comes after he spent five years at the Justice Department under the Obama administration and later held senior positions at PepsiCo and Uber.
West, who is married to Harris’ sister Maya, also works as an attorney for the San Francisco-based law firm Morrison & Foerster, where he represented the notorious John Walker Lind, according to the report. Washington Free Beacon.
Lindh left the United States, was trained by Osama bin Laden, fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan and was captured by U.S. forces as an enemy combatant in November 2001.
The following year, West agreed to a traitor’s defense and argued at trial that Lind was not a terrorist.
“He’s not a terrorist,” a senior Harris staffer told The Washington Post in 2002.
“He didn’t go to Afghanistan to kill Americans,” West said of Lindh, who was 21 at the time.
Lindh was charged with 10 federal counts, including conspiracy to murder Americans and collaborating with al-Qaida.
In 2002, he was offered and accepted a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to providing services to the Taliban and possessing explosives during the commission of a felony and served 17 years of a 20-year sentence.
The Biden administration came under fire this week for offering plea deals to three men accused of masterminding the 9/11 terror attacks that would spare them the death penalty.
In a shocking move, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on Friday that he was canceling pre-trial agreements between Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the al-Qaida attacks, and his alleged associates, Walid Mohammed Saleh Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi.
In addition to West, Harris has made several new hires in recent days with ties to former President Barack Obama.
David Plouffe, who was Obama’s 2008 campaign manager and a senior aide to the former president during the 2012 campaign, has joined Harris’ team as a senior adviser. According to Reuters.
The outlet reported Friday that Harris’ campaign will also include Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s White House communications director and deputy campaign manager, and Mitch Stewart, a veteran of both Obama campaigns.
The Harris campaign did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment on the hires.
