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Bergdahl's lawyer said the prosecution and defense have not agreed to a stipulation of facts in the case, which is an indication that they did not reach a deal to limit his punishment, The Associated Press reported. The misbehavior charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, while the desertion charge is punishable by up to five years. Bergdahl, 31, told the judge that he now understands what he did caused others to search for him. Bergdahl was released in May 2014 after a highly criticized deal in which five Taliban terrorists were set free. At the time, Obama administration officials said Bergdahl had "served with honor and distinction."
The U.S. Army said Bergdahl asked to enter his plea before the military judge, which brings the saga closer to an end eight years after Bergdahl's disappearance in Afghanistan set off search missions by scores of his fellow service members. President Obama was criticized by Republicans for the 2014 Taliban prisoner swap that brought Bergdahl home, while President Donald Trump harshly criticized Bergdahl on the campaign trail. Bergdahl's punishment won't be known until after the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance, holds the sentencing hearing that's expected to start on Oct. 23. Bergdahl, who's from Hailey, Idaho, previously chose to have his case heard by a judge alone, rather than a jury.
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
Serious wounds to service members who searched for Bergdahl are expected to play a role in his sentencing. While guilty pleas would allow him to avoid a trial, he'd still face a sentencing hearing in late October. Bergdahl's five years of captivity by the Taliban and its allies also will likely play a role in what punishment he receives. At one point during his captivity, Bergdahl converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a "mujahid," or warrior for Islam, Fox News reported in 2014, citing secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account.
The reports indicate that Bergdahl's relations with his Haqqani captors morphed over time, from periods of hostility, where he was treated very much like a hostage, to periods where, as one source told Fox News, "he became much more of an accepted fellow" than is popularly understood. He even reportedly was allowed to carry a gun at times. The documents show that Bergdahl at one point escaped his captors for five days and was kept, upon his re-capture, in a metal cage, like an animal. In addition, the reports detail discussions of prisoner swaps and other attempts at a negotiated resolution to the case that appear to have commenced as early as the fall of 2009.
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Master Sergeant Mark Allen is confined to a wheelchair and cannot speak after being shot in the head during a July 2009 mission to seek intelligence on Bergdahl, who had abandoned his post days earlier. Prosecutors said testimony by Allen’s wife and his doctor about the effects of his wounds will likely conclude their case at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, where Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The 31-year-old Idaho native faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a dishonorable discharge. He has been the subject of withering criticism from political leaders in Washington and fellow soldiers, both for the dangerous search to find him and the 2014 Taliban prisoner swap brokered by the Democratic Obama administration that won his release.
During campaigning for the presidency last year, Donald Trump, a Republican, called Bergdahl “a no-good traitor who should have been executed.” In sometimes emotional testimony last week, U.S. service members described the risks and hardships they faced after Bergdahl walked off his combat outpost in Paktika province in June 2009. Texas Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jason Walters saw Allen get shot during the Taliban ambush on troops seeking information on Bergdahl’s location. He choked up as he recalled visiting Allen later in a Florida hospital. “Seeing him like that was...painful,” Walters said.
Bergdahl admitted on Oct. 16 to wrongdoing but said he never intended to put anyone at risk. He told Army Colonel Jeffery Nance, the judge in the case, that he had planned to go to a nearby base to report “critical problems” in his chain of command, got lost and was captured by the Taliban. He spent the next five years in captivity suffering torture, abuse and neglect. Over defense objections, Nance has allowed evidence of injuries sustained by Allen and others because they occurred during search-and-rescue operations prompted by Bergdahl’s actions.
Major Oren Gleich, one of Bergdahl’s lawyers, argued on Thursday there should be a limit to how much blame his client shoulders. “The accused is not responsible for a never-ending chain of causes and effects,” Gleich said. Bergdahl’s attorneys are expected to present expert testimony about his suffering in captivity in hopes of securing a more lenient sentence, military law experts said.
Soldier's brain injury in focus at U.S. Army's Bergdahl sentencing
His civilian lawyer, Eugene Fidell, on Friday said his client should be recognized for the five years he spent in Taliban captivity after deserting his post in Afghanistan, according to an article by USA Today. "We have long felt he was entitled to the POW medal," Fidell said, the newspaper reported. It wasn't immediately clear whether Bergdahl's defense team plans to push for the award as part of the process to appeal his dishonorable discharge.
An email request for comment to Fidell wasn't immediately returned. Earlier Friday, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance, the military judge at Bergdahl's court-martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, sentenced the 31-year-old defendant to a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank to E-1 and a monthly reduction in pay of $1,000 for the next 10 months.
Despite the fact Bergdahl received a dishonorable discharge sentence, his defense team indicated they will still seek the "Prisoner of War" medal for Bergdahl. The award was authorized by Congress and signed into law in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan. The award generally goes to those "taken prisoner and held captive while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States."
Bergdahl's Attorney Wants Him to Receive POW Medal | Military.com
President Donald Trump denounced Friday the decision to spare Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl jail time as a "complete and total disgrace." "The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military," Trump said in a Tweet from Air Force One en route to Hawaii at the start of an Asian trip that will take him to China, Japan and South Korea. Earlier Friday, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance, the military judge at Bergdahl's court-martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, sentenced the 31-year-old defendant to a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank to E-1 and a monthly reduction in pay of $1,000 for the next 10 months.
Nance made no other comments in imposing the sentence but earlier this week said in court that he was taking into consideration Trump's previous comments on the case in deciding on punishment. "I will consider the president's comments as mitigation evidence as I arrive at an appropriate sentence," he said. As a candidate last year, Trump called Bergdahl a "dirty rotten traitor" and said he should be executed for leaving his post in Afghanistan. Last month, Trump did not back off his previous remarks. "I think people have heard my comments in the past," he said. The sentence will be reviewed by Army Gen. Robert B. Abrams, the convening authority in the case and commander of U.S. Forces Command. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Abrams can reduce the sentence or approve it but cannot increase it.
If the final sentence still includes a dishonorable discharge, it will then automatically be reviewed by the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals. One of the soldiers who was wounded while searching for Bergdahl bitterly criticized the sentence that spared him jail time. Asked by phone about his reaction to Bergdahl's sentence, former Army Sgt. Jonathan Morita, of California, told ABC News, "I've had better days. "The dishonorable discharge means he can't receive any of these services like I can" from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Morita said. "He'll pay the fine like people get fined for illegal fishing. OK, whoop-de-doo." Morita said Bergdahl deserved to spend time in jail. "That's the one that's completely unacceptable," he said. "It should have maybe not been the life sentence, but it should have been something."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was "incredibly disappointed" by the sentence. Graham, who served as an Air Force lawyer for more than 30 years, said, "This sentence in my view falls short of the gravity of the offense." During the sentencing proceedings, Army Capt. Nina Banks, one of Bergdahl's military defense lawyers, argued for leniency, citing his five years in captivity with insurgents believed to be part of the Haqqani network affiliated with the Taliban. Sergeant Bergdahl has been punished enough," Banks told the military judge, and Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl's chief civilian lawyer, echoed her argument at a news conference after the sentence was announced. "As everyone knows, he was a captive of the Taliban for nearly five years, and three more years have elapsed while the legal process unfolded,' Fidell said. "He has lost nearly a decade of his life."
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