Vice President Kamala Harris has appointed her brother-in-law, Tony West, as a “powerful adviser” to her new campaign, according to a report by Axios on Friday. West, a former attorney for the Obama Justice Department, has a controversial past, notably defending convicted terrorist John Walker Lindh, also known as the “American Taliban.”

In 2002, West represented Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan and charged with providing support to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as conspiring to murder Americans. During the trial, West, then an attorney at the San Francisco law firm Morrison & Foerster, dismissed claims that Lindh was a terrorist. “He is not a terrorist,” West stated in a 2002 interview with the Washington Post. “He did not go to Afghanistan to kill Americans.” Despite West’s defense, Lindh was sentenced to 20 years in prison and has since refused to renounce his extremist ideologies.

West’s involvement in Harris’s campaign has raised concerns among some Democratic strategists. One party official expressed worries to Axios that West’s “prominent role could re-create the same family dynamics that at times caused unnecessary drama in her 2020 campaign.” West is married to Harris’s sister, Maya, and is the stepfather of Harris’s niece, social justice entrepreneur Meena Harris.

A longtime ally of former President Barack Obama, West played a significant role in his 2008 campaign, raising $65 million. His efforts earned him a position as the Justice Department’s third-ranking attorney, where he oversaw policies regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees. West advocated for expanding legal privileges for enemy combatants, emphasizing the importance of meaningful judicial review and fair procedures for detainees.

“Courts must have the procedural tools that enable them to conduct meaningful reviews of the lawfulness of the government’s action,” West stated in a 2011 speech to the American Bar Association. He further emphasized the need for “fulsome procedures that allow [detainees] to test the legality of their detention.”

West also played a role in shaping policies that allowed detained terrorists to challenge the government’s case against them. “We’ve worked hard to create a process that allows habeas counsel to review classified evidence,” West said, highlighting the Obama DOJ’s efforts to provide access to potentially exculpatory material.

Harris has previously criticized the use of the term “radical Islamic terrorism,” arguing during her 2016 Senate campaign that it “ignores how Muslims have overwhelmingly been the greatest victims of terror.” She has also been a vocal critic of America’s counterterrorism operations, particularly following the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by former President Donald Trump in 2020. Harris accused Trump of endangering American troops and called for the administration to brief Congress on its actions. “Soleimani was an enemy of the U.S., but President Trump’s actions put more American lives at risk and could lead to a new war in the Middle East—with no plan for what happens next,” she said at the time.

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