Kamala Harris’ Brother-In-Law, Who Once Defended ‘American Taliban’ Lindh, Joins Her Campaign Team

Tony West (right) who represented ‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh will act as an adviser in the Kamala Harris campaign team. (Image: Reuters)

Tony West is married to Maya Harris and will serve as a “powerful adviser” to Kamala Harris.

US Vice-President and Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris has roped in her brother-in-law, Tony West, 58, to be part of her campaign team. West is an attorney who previously served in the Justice Department during Barack Obama’s presidency.

West is married to Maya Harris and will serve as a “powerful adviser”, Axios said in a report. West has also served in high-level roles at Uber and Pepsico.

A separate report by the New York Post pointed out that West worked as an attorney for the San Francisco-based law firm Morrison & Foerster.

He was also the attorney in the high-profile case of infamous John Walker Lindh, where West represented the man who became known as the ‘American Taliban’, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Lindh had left the US to train with Osama bin Laden and fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan. US forces in Afghanistan captured him in November 2001.

West had argued during Lindh’s trial that he was not a terrorist.

“He is not a terrorist. He did not go to Afghanistan to kill Americans,” West who was 21 at the time told the Washington Post in 2002.

John Walker Lindh faced 10 federal charges, including conspiracy to murder US citizens and contributing services to al Qaeda. In 2002, he accepted a plea deal, admitting to supplying services to the Taliban and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony. Lindh served 17 years of a 20-year sentence.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday overrode a plea agreement reached earlier this week for the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death-penalty cases.

Mohammed, whom the U.S. describes as the main plotter of the attack that crashed hijacked passenger planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, and the other two defendants had been expected to formally enter their pleas under the deal as soon as next week.