Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was imprisoned in Turkey for two years before President Donald Trump secured his release back in Trump’s first term, is ratcheting up pressure on Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) to get Trump’s Religious Freedom ambassador confirmed before Christmas.

Trump’s nominee for the post, former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), has been languishing all year without even a scheduled confirmation hearing. Risch has a scheduled nomination hearing on Thursday of this week before the Foreign Relations Committee and could easily add Walker’s nomination to the docket if he wanted to — and if he did and Walker advances through the committee as expected then he could get confirmed by the full U.S. Senate before Christmas.

Brunson’s voice, as one of the h

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