Lindh is an American who was captured in 2001 during the US invasion into Afghanistan. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he tried to prevent the release of Lindh, but there was no legal way to stop it, The New York Times reported.
“The lawyers have gone through it with a fine tooth comb,” Trump said according to the Times. “If there was a way to break that, I would have broken it in two seconds.” He added that Lindh has not “given up his proclamation of terrorism.”
Lindh was released on probation after serving 17 years of his 20-year sentence for supporting the Taliban. He captured the attention of America when photos of his capture were released with his shaggy hair and dirty face. He pleaded guilty shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban" who pleaded guilty to terror-related charges after the September 11 attacks, has been released from prisonhttps://t.co/JZDp8JZJlq pic.twitter.com/f6lLtbKagF
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) May 23, 2019
A California native, Lindh was said to have converted to Islam at 16 and, according to Vox, said he joined the Taliban because, as he said, “my heart became attached to them.”