Bergdahl avoids prison for desertion
Sentence under review; Trump calls it a ‘disgrace’
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his Army base in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held captive by the Taliban for five years, was ordered to be dishonorably discharged from the Army by a military judge Friday, but received no prison time for desertion or endangering troops.
At a sentencing that took only minutes, the military judge, Col. Jeffery R. Nance of the Army, also reduced Bergdahl’s rank to private and required him to forfeit $1,000 a month of his pay for 10 months. Prosecutors had sought 14 years in a military prison.
President Donald Trump, who has labeled Bergdahl a “dirty rotten traitor,” quickly criticized Friday’s sentence, calling it “a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.”
Nance did not explain his reasoning for the sentence, which will be reviewed by Gen. Robert Abrams, who convened the court-martial, and has the power to lessen the punishment.
If the final sentence still includes a punitive discharge, it will then automatically be reviewed by the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals.
Politics have dogged the case from the start. The Obama administration embraced Bergdahl — national security adviser Susan Rice said that he had served with “honor and distinction” — a portrayal that angered many Republicans. Then, last year, Trump made Bergdahl a staple of his campaign speeches, denouncing him and calling for him to be executed.
Outside the military courthouse here, Bergdahl’s chief defense lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, called the sentence a “tremendous relief,” and said his client was still absorbing it after an “anxiety-inducing” day waiting for the decision.
Fidell then took sharp aim at Trump, whose harsh comments about Bergdahl may have contributed to the decision not to sentence him to prison: Nance had ruled earlier this week that he would consider the president’s statements as mitigating evidence.
“President Trump’s unprincipled effort to stoke a lynch-mob atmosphere while seeking our nation’s highest office has cast a dark cloud over the case,” said Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School.
Even though the defense had told the judge that a dishonorable discharge would be appropriate, Fidell said he hoped it would be overturned. He noted that such a discharge would deprive his client of health care services and other “benefits he badly needs” from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Bergdahl is expected to return to his job at an Army base in San Antonio as the case winds through the appeals process.