WASHINGTON (AP) – Joshua Holt, a Utah man who traveled to Venezuela in 2016 to marry a woman he met online but soon found himself jailed and later branded the CIA’s top spy in Latin America, has been welcomed home by his family and President Donald Trump.
Holt, 26, says he was “overwhelmed with gratitude.”
Holt is formally from Pocotello, Idaho, according to the East Idaho News.
He and his wife, Thamara Caleno, arrived Saturday evening at Washington Dulles International Airport for a tearful reunion with his parents, Laurie and Jason Holt. A few hours later, Trump welcomed them to the White House.
“Those two years, they were a very, very, very difficult two years,” said an emotional Joshua Holt, sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office. “Not really the great vacation that I was looking for. … I’m just so grateful for what you guys have done.”