This past July I wrote about the plight of pastor Andrew Brunson who had been unjustly imprisoned in Turkey since October of 2016.  Brunson was jailed after being scooped up in a crackdown of Turkish President Erdogan’s political opponents in the wake of an attempted coup.  He lost fifty pounds during his time in jail.  Brunson was initially charged with membership in an armed terrorist organization. A Turkish judge had reportedly tried to link the Christian pastor to the political movement launched by Muslim Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, thought to be responsible for the attempted coup. The indictment also claimed Brunson helped members of the Kurdish Workers’ Party, which the Turkish government regards as a terrorist organization, escape by letting them become Christians and leave the country. “Let it be clear, I am in prison, not for anything that I have done wrong, but because of who I am – a Christian pastor,” said Brunson while in confinement.  “I desperately miss my wife and children. Yet, I believe this to be true – it is an honor to suffer for Jesus Christ as many have before me. My deepest thanks to all those around the world who are standing with me and praying for me.”

Last April, President Trump asserted that Brunson was being “persecuted in Turkey for no reason” and said, “They call him a spy, but I am more a spy than he is. Hopefully he will be allowed to come home to his beautiful family where he belongs!”

Months later, Trump tweeted that the United States would impose “large sanctions” on Turkey for its detainment of Brunson, “a great Christian family man and wonderful human being. He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!”

In July Pastor Brunson was released after spending 21 months in a Turkish prison and allowed to return to his home in Turkey where he was be under house arrest.  According to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) which had been representing the North Carolina pastor, Brunson had been on trial for the crime of “Christianization.”   ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow said in July that there have been “bilateral negotiations at the highest levels, including the President of the United States.

Pastor Andrew Brunson (center) arrives at the airport Friday night in Izmir, Turkey, with his wife, Norine.

Brunson was formally released and allowed to return to the United States Friday. A Turkish court in the western city of Izmir had sentenced the pastor to three years and one month in prison but chose to release him based on his time already served as well as his manner during the proceedings. Brunson’s attorney said. Prosecutors were seeking a 10-year prison term.  After two years of detention in Turkey, during which the American pastor’s fate drove a wedge between two longtime allies. With television cameras on hand to record the event, Mr. Trump invited the pastor, Andrew Brunson, to the Oval Office roughly an hour after he had touched down Saturday at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington, D.C. From there, Brunson stopped by the White House for a visit with President Trump.  “I just want to congratulate you because you have galvanized this country,” Trump told Brunson, who was flanked by senior administration officials and his family. “There’s so much interest, and it’s your faith, it’s your strength — what you’ve gone through.”

Brunson, for his part, expressed his gratitude for the host of high-level officials in the room — ranging from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to GOP lawmakers.  “I really want to thank the administration,” Brunson said. “You really fought for us — unusually so. From the time you took office, I know that you’ve been engaged.”

In an emotional moment,  Mr. Brunson, an Evangelical Presbyterian pastor, asked if he could pray for Mr. Trump, and then knelt beside the president in prayer and asked God to give the president “supernatural wisdom.”

In his remarks, Trump said it was a “great honor” to have Brunson in the White House and thanked a number of lawmakers and members of the Cabinet for their assistance in securing Bunson’s release. “If ever there was a bipartisan effort, this was it,” Trump said. A number of senators, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, were in attendance in the Oval Office. Trump also appeared to take something of a swipe at the previous administration when he said: “We do not pay ransom in this country, at least any longer.”

Brunson said he and his wife looked forward to spending time with children and praying to see what God wants next from him.

“He’s, I think, in good shape,” Trump told reporters. “We’re very honored to have him back with us. He suffered greatly. But we’re very appreciative to a lot of people, a lot of people.”

The scene Saturday offered something of a happy ending to a long story rife with tension and anger.

As his time in custody stretched on, his status attracted ire first from U.S. evangelical leaders, then from the highest rungs of power in Washington. Both Trump and Vice President Pence actively lobbied for his release, and earlier this year, the U.S. slapped several high-ranking Turkish officials with sanctions over the “unfair and unjust detention.”

“They are thankful to be safely home in the USA,” Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, tweeted after returning to the country with the pastor and Brunson’s wife, Norine. “Under this administration being an American means something!”

Authorities on both sides of the diplomatic dispute are celebrating the ruling, though for different reasons. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his surrogates have lauded the ruling as proof of the independence of his country’s judiciary system. The strongman leader has come under international criticism for fostering an increasingly authoritarian regime and cracking down on dissent within his borders — particularly after the failed coup attempt in 2016. Addressing Trump on Twitter, Erdogan said Saturday that, “as I’ve always emphasized, the Turkish judiciary made an impartial decision.” Erdogan had previously suggested that Brunson’s freedom could depend on whether the U.S. approved his request to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the Islamic cleric whom Erdogan blames for orchestrating the coup attempt. But on Saturday, Erdogan struck a markedly more conciliatory tone, not long after Trump tweeted his thanks to the Turkish president “for his help.”

Brunson’s sudden release came as the Turkish government was seeking help from Mr. Trump in its confrontation with Saudi Arabia over the disappearance and apparent murder of Mr. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post and critic of the royal family. Mr. Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul but never emerged, and Turkish officials said he was killed and dismembered with a bone saw.

Turkey is looking for the United States to back it up in forcing Saudi Arabia to account for Mr. Khashoggi’s fate, but Mr. Trump insisted on Saturday that Mr. Brunson’s release was not related. “The timing is a strict coincidence,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “It really is.”

Saudi Arabia once again denied on Saturday any involvement in Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance. The interior minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, said in a statement that “what has been circulating in terms of supposed orders to kill Jamal are outright lies and baseless allegations against the kingdom’s government, which is committed to its principles, rules and traditions and is in compliance with international laws and conventions.”

Mr. Brunson’s case generated pressure on Mr. Trump from religious leaders, and the president, Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress from both parties took it up. The president imposed sanctions on Turkey, and Mr. Trump said on Saturday that he had spoken about the case with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “at least once a day.”

An evangelical pastor who ran the small Resurrection Church in Izmir, Mr. Brunson, 50, and his wife, Norine, lived in Turkey for two dozen years.  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey stressed on Saturday that the release was authorized by the courts, not the government. “Honorable President @realDonaldTrump, as I have always emphasized, the Turkish judiciary has given its decision independently,” he wrote in Turkish on Twitter. “I hope that Turkey and USA will continue the cooperation worthy of two allies.”

The reaction in Turkey to the release was otherwise muted. The government played down the event, a sign of its discomfort, since Mr. Brunson had long been vilified by the Turkish news media as a terrorist and a spy.

Yet the anti-American, nationalist posture that has been adopted by the Turkish government, and by Mr. Erdogan himself, since a failed coup in 2016 will not be easily reversed. “Never come back again!” the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak screamed in a headline on Saturday.

Mr. Erdogan’s coalition partner, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party, accused the United States of using blackmail to win Mr. Brunson’s release and said the decision had “disturbed the national conscience.”

“Pastor Brunson has been released after a dark, unacceptable process to which everyone with a conscience objects,” he said in a statement to the Turkish news media. He called on the United States to hand over Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric blamed by Turkey for orchestrating the coup attempt two years ago from his self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, or to extradite Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish banker imprisoned in May for conspiring to violate American sanctions on Iran.

“The moment Pastor Brunson departs for U.S.A., those whose extradition is morally and legally obligatory must be sent to our country,” Mr. Bahceli said.

There was NO DEAL made with Turkey for the release and return of Pastor Andrew Brunson. I don’t make deals for hostages. There was, however, great appreciation on behalf of the United States, which will lead to good, perhaps great, relations between the United States & Turkey!

President Trump tweeted the following at 9:17 AM on Oct 13, 2018:  There was NO DEAL made with Turkey for the release and return of Pastor Andrew Brunson. I don’t make deals for hostages. There was, however, great appreciation on behalf of the United States, which will lead to good, perhaps great, relations between the United States & Turkey!

That claim, however, has been contradicted by multiple media outlets. NBC News and The Washington Post have reported that Brunson’s relatively lenient sentence was handed down after secret negotiations between senior officials in Turkey and the Trump administration, conducted on the sidelines of last month’s United Nations General Assembly.

However Brunson’s release occurred, Trump hailed it as a milestone — and a sign of better things to come between the longtime NATO allies. “I think this will be a big step in our relationship,” Trump told reporters.

Andrew Brunson walks down the colonnade of the White House on Saturday, flanked by his wife, Norine, and President Trump.

Appearing in the Oval Office in a dark suit, white shirt and Carolina blue tie, Mr. Brunson appeared healthy and in good spirits. He expressed no bitterness and thanked Mr. Trump and other American officials.

“We do love Turkey,” he said. “We were there for 25 years, and we love the Turkish people.”

Mr. Brunson asked the president if he could pray for him, and Mr. Trump agreed. Mr. Brunson knelt next to the president and put his hand on Mr. Trump’s shoulder, closed his eyes and looked down. “I ask that you give him wisdom to lead this country into righteousness,” Mr. Brunson said.

Norine Brunson then added a prayer of her own for the president. Mr. Trump thanked them both and then addressed Mrs. Brunson. “Could I ask you one question?” he said. “Who did you vote for?”

She indicated that she had voted for him. “I knew the answer,” he said with a smile. Mr. Brunson added, “I sent in an absentee ballot from prison.”

Mr. Brunson’s case had become a cause célèbre among religious conservatives, and Mr. Trump eagerly embraced it. He credited the pressure he had put on Turkey for Mr. Brunson’s release, but said he had agreed to no deal. “The only deal, if you could call it a deal, is a psychological one,” he said. “We feel much different about Turkey today than we did yesterday.”

That may be exactly what Turkey wanted, given the clash over Mr. Khashoggi, but Mr. Trump made clear once again that he had no immediate or specific plans to take action against Saudi Arabia. He again rejected the idea of canceling or postponing arms sales on the grounds that it would cost American businesses money and jobs, and he made no move to cancel Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s coming trip to Saudi Arabia for an investment conference, even though several American businesses are pulling out.

Trump tweeted about Brunson several times this year, and the White House repeatedly pushed for his release in conversation with Turkish officials.

The Trump administration advocated persistently for Brunson’s release, leading to an intense economic showdown between the two NATO allies. In August, the U.S. slapped sanctions on an array of Turkish officials and on some goods, sending Turkish currency into freefall. Brunson’s release still leaves Turkey frustrated by the Trump administration’s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of engineering the failed coup.

Brunson was accused of committing crimes on behalf of Gulen and Kurdish militants who have been fighting the Turkish state for decades. He faced up to 35 years in jail if convicted of all the charges against him.