Bergdahl appeals court-martial over Trump, Mccain comments
BOISE, Idaho – A former U.S. Army soldier who was court martialed after he left his post in Afghanistan and was
captured by the Taliban is asking a federal judge to overturn his military conviction, saying his trial was unduly influenced when former President Donald Trump repeatedly made disparaging comments about him and called for his execution.
Bowe Bergdahl filed the complaint in federal court in Washington, D.C., last month, asking a judge to overturn his court martial conviction. Bergdahl says Trump’s statements and actions by the late U.S. Sen. John Mccain and his military judge violated his Fifth Amendment right to a fair trial.
“The scandalous meddling in a specific case by leaders of the political branches – one of whom was Commander in Chief of the armed forces – would never be tolerated if the proceeding had been a criminal prosecution in this or any other federal district court and should not be tolerated in a courtmartial,” Bergdahl’s attorneys wrote in the court filing.
Bergdahl was charged with desertion
and misbehavior before the enemy after the then-23-year-old from Hailey, Idaho, left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. The soldier maintained he was trying to get outside his post so he could report what he saw as poor unit leadership, but he was abducted by the Taliban and held captive for nearly five years.
Toomey’s vote to convict – and his earlier assessment that Trump had committed “impeachable offenses” in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol – set off a wave of protrump county party condemnations of Toomey in Pennsylvania.