More than eight years after Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked off his base in Afghanistan to look for the Taliban — Bergdahl walked out of a North Carolina courtroom a free man on Friday. Bergdahl, who pleaded guilty to endangering his comrades, was fined, reduced in rank to E1 and dishonorably discharged — but he received no prison time.
So the judge went easy on Bergdahl to go after Trump. He all but said so earlier in the week. That's wrong. pic.twitter.com/dXDNMGPwDa
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) November 3, 2017
FOX News As part of the sentence, Bergdahl will forfeit his pay of $1000 per month for ten months. Bergdahl was shaking and appeared emotional as the verdict was quickly read.
Prosecutors had requested a 14-year prison term following a week of emotional testimony from the survivors who were wounded during missions to find Bergdahl after he left the base in June 2009. Bergdahl’s defense team has asked for no prison time.
Bergdahl faced up to life in prison for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Wearing a blue dress uniform, Bergdahl appeared tense during the short morning session. He clenched his jaw as if grinding his teeth, then grimaced and looked at the floor when he walked out of the courtroom.
In closing arguments, defense attorneys argued that Bergdahl already had suffered enough confinement during five years of brutal captivity by Taliban allies. They asked the judge for a dishonorable discharge and no prison time. Their argument for leniency also cited harsh campaign-trail criticism by Donald Trump and Bergdahl’s mental disorders.
Capt. Nina Banks, a defense attorney, said it wouldn’t be justice to rescue Bergdahl from the Taliban “only to place him in a cell” now. “Sgt. Bergdahl has been punished enough,” Banks added. “Sgt. Bergdahl paid a bitter price for the choices that he made.” (CRAP! As President Trump said, he should be executed)
Master Sergeant Mark Allen (below) suffered a traumatic head injury in July 2009 while out searching for the deserter Bergdahl. The injury left him unable to speak or walk for the rest of his life.
During the multiday sentencing hearing, Bergdahl himself testified that he was sorry for the wounds suffered by searchers. He also described brutal beatings by his captors, illness brought on by squalid conditions and maddening periods of isolation, most of it in a cramped cage.
A psychiatrist testified that Bergdahl’s decision to leave his post was influenced by a schizophrenia-like condition called schizotypal personality disorder that made it hard to understand consequences of his actions, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder brought on partly by a difficult childhood.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 14 years in prison, citing serious wounds to service members who looked for Bergdahl.
“Sgt. Bergdahl does not have a monopoly on suffering as a result of his choices,” said Maj. Justin Oshana, a prosecutor. Contrasting Bergdahl to the wounded searchers, he added, “The difference is, all the suffering stems from his choice.”
Oshana also cited Bergdahl’s own words to argue against the idea that his thinking was clouded. On a courtroom monitor he displayed quotes from an initial investigation after Bergdahl returned to the U.S. Bergdahl, who has said he walked off to draw attention to problems with his unit, described to an investigating officer how he envisioned the missing-soldier alert unfolding.
Bergdahl had said that the call goes “all the way up to Army command, it goes to Air Force, it goes to Marines. … It goes to every high point and everybody finds out about it.”
Bergdahl pleaded guilty Oct. 16. The judge has wide discretion on sentencing because he didn’t strike a deal with prosecutors to limit his punishment. A bad conduct or dishonorable discharge would deprive Bergdahl of most or all his veterans’ benefits.
The 31-year-old soldier from Hailey, Idaho, was brought home by President Barack Obama in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Obama said at the time that the U.S. does not leave its service members on the battlefield.
Below is a photo of Bergdahl’s parents and Obama. Notice the Muslim beard on the father and how he knows how to pray in Arabic. He was more concerned with releasing terrorists from Gitmo than he was with the dead soldiers his son’s desertion directly caused.
Republicans roundly criticized Obama, and Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly calling Bergdahl a traitor who deserved death.
Bergdahl’s platoon leader talks about how targeted IED attacks by the Taliban on his fellow soldiers increased right after Bergdahl deserted:
Az gal says
Now this POS deserter is excused because of “mental problems”? The Muslum category.
This judge should be impeached for not being impartial. Justice was not blind in this case, the judge had a vendetta against Trump!
The parents who campaigned so hard for their worthless son have disappeared.
The media has been covering up these Bergdahl deaths. Saying there were none.
This story is not over.
SavedbyJesus says
Disgusting and VILE this guy SHOULD DO TIME POS
Troybeam says
Bergdahi, now like Jane Fonda is a deeply hated man among Americans and especially the military, he walked away and went to the Islamic side, that is treason in a nut shell. He now has to live with the fact he’s A WANTED MAN in the eyes of all who feel he got off on easy street, memories are long and justice will find a way.
Viganus says
Unless he goes into hiding I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone takes him out. Maybe a veteran with a terminal illness who has nothing to lose..
To me this guy is far worse than that shemale Manning, at least he didn’t get soldiers killed.
dsinc42 says
///yes, shoot the bastard.
Don Spilman says
This piece of human garbage needs to be hunted and hounded, until he literally SNAPS!!!!!! Any where he goes the damned creature should come to know real fear. Maybe those who gave him a little slap on the wrist should be tracked down too. I’ll bet they are all GLOBS… GLOBS. Are pure evil, I HATE evil.
cat says
Jail for many years and turfed from the army. No benefits. The judge must have been an Obama supporter. This is no justice for the 5 brave soldiers killed looking for the traitor and no justice for their families and friends. I think about all of the innocent people murdered by the 5 monsters released. This is a travesty of justice.
Big Bend Keefer (Proud North Florida Infidel) says
You touched on the most overlooked part of this whole story; The FACT that he abandoned his post to JOIN the Taliban. Another chapter in the treasonous playbook of this Country’s number one anti-American mozlim, Barack Hussein Obozo. Even out of Office the slime-ball Kenyan chips away at America’s greatness. God Bless POTUS Trump. Together we all can help MAGA!
BareNakedIslam says
BBK, Yes, the media skips over those important details.
Charlotte says
Following the ruling, the NRA’s Cameron Gray tweeted the names and photos of the six brave soliders who died looking for Bergdahl after he deserted his post.
https://twitter.com/Cameron_Gray
Charlotte says
I think there will be justice…
Karma is a bitch. wait and see.
Susan Faith Rubin says
I absolutely despise judges. They make arbitrary and capricious decisions such as in this case, clearly. A good attorney, a competent attorney makes lots more money as an attorney. Judges are just incompetent attorneys that cannot make a living as an attorney so they must work for the government. Our legal system is a huge joke. I was told by the president of the BAR association in Staten island New York that “There is no justice in the legal system.”
Hill says
Susan, Concur.
These are the same people who charged that idiot kid in the Navy for taking photos to send home to mom and dad.
Nor am I saying what that “kid” did was right either, but 10 years!?
More than, Berghdal, Manning and Hillary combined.
Cleavis Nowell (@CleavisNowell) says
Bergdahl should be castrated and sent to clear mines in the DMZ between Free Korea & N. Korea !
budfundi says
I hope he lives in fear, and pain, for the rest of his miserable life. And I hope it’s a very long one.
Emma de la Cruz says
Me also! I hope that some disgruntled soldier with PTSD blows his brains out!!! M’effer should DIE!!! I am beyond livid. It’s cold steel. I would have no hesitancy representing his exterminator.
An afterthought: how many died at the hands of obombass following the release of the gitmo bastards? Their families, whether American or other should rise up.
How the hell do they expect our men and women in uniform to stand for our country when they don’t support the oath that they took? When they don’t support our fallen? If our government wants our military personnel to stand behind them, they damn well better stand behind our military personnel!! If not, you trained them and they’re NOT going to stand behind you!! It’s about the Constitution, not lame ass judges and”pseudo representatives!” Fucktards!! BTW… I should probably shut my pie hole about now. This just has me So…pissed off!!
TONYA PARNELL says
THAT BASTARD SHOULD BE FACING A FIRING SQUAD
bonita says
Thank God Trump is here, he has a heavy load to clean up after Obama, not to mention the utter corruption in the US Government, how did it get that bad?
wildbronco26 says
A Dishonorable Discharge is the same as a Felony Conviction, and is entered as so in the National Crime Information Systems Data Base. With a DD he will be unable to obtain any Government Funded Home Loan which includes but not limited to a VA Home Loan, and he also Loses the right to vote, (Federal Law), in more than a few states someone with a DD is also prohibited from getting a Drivers License. If he tries to rent an Apartment that requires a Police Back Ground Check it ill show that he has a Felony Conviction and a DD from the Military. In many cases a Landlord can actually deny him the ability to rent said Apartment, and the same applies to renting a house. The Stigma of a DD is a life time branding on his forehead.
BareNakedIslam says
That’s nowhere near enough punishment. He should be rotting in jail at the very least for the rest of his life.
Emma de la Cruz says
So, he’s not going to be able to obtain a home loan or an apartment? Well, BOO FUCKIN HOO!! Neither are the men who died looking for him to save his traitorous ass. Why? Because they’re DEAD!! This m’effer got a free pass!!!! Let military families and loved ones issue the sentence. Let the fallen soldiers and their loved ones decide the sentence! Military Code of Justice, my ass!! I hope the bastard looks over his shoulder for the rest of his life until a disgruntled fellow combatant or family member exacts true justice!! Fuckin judge needs to look over his shoulder too!!
Hadenoughalready says
You took the words out of my mouth, Emma. I was, literally, shaking mad when I heard this. Caught myself screaming at the TV, too.
This son of a bitch should have been thrown from the chopper at 500 feet right there in Afghanistan and left for the vultures.
And to think o’shitbag traded this sorry excuse for a human being for 5 mozlem reptiles who are now free to kill hundreds more of our troops.
O’shitbag should have been charged with treason right along with this asshole.
Like you, I hope he lives a long and miserable life, in pain, looking over his shoulder at every moment, listening for that “whistle”…
Between this and the Hillary/dem /AntiFa/BLM, et al, scandals, it’s become obvious that we no longer live under the rule of “equal justice under the law” in these once great United States of America. Today is a sad day in American history.
I remain completely disgusted.
As for Jeff Sessions, he can go fuck himself. Aside from chasing illegals, he’s done NOTHING worthy. He needs to go!
Arpaio or Clark, even West, would do a far better job, in my opinion.
BareNakedIslam says
Time to bring in Rudy Giuliani.
Hadenoughalready says
Good choice. Judge Napolitano, too.
BareNakedIslam says
Yes, he would be great, too.
Hadenoughalready says
Forgot to tell ya, the check’s in the mail.
BareNakedIslam says
Thank you, Had…as always.
Jim Stewart says
He doesn’t care. Million dollar bood deal coming.
Peter35 says
What a pity he wasn’t from Canada he could have been in line for millions!
Mary Anne says
WB 26 I don’t think he’ll have to worry about getting a DD. Once he writes his book on his captivity and the movie that will be in the works shortly, he’ll be a very wealthy deserter. Too bad the same can’t be said of the true heroes who died and those who were horribly injured as a result of his treachery. Oh, I forgot, what about the warrior dog who was shot in the face and killed while on the search for that POS?
Jack says
This was a slap in the face to Trump and a reach around for Obama.
Emma de la Cruz says
This was a slap in the face to all of those who have served honorably and sacrificed for our freedoms!!!! It’s not about Trump. The friggin traitor should have faced a firing squad! You do not ever desert your post and leave your brothers and sisters in the line of fire!! Doesn’t matter how you feel!!!
BLR says
This Insult delivered just days before a nation turns it’s attenuation to so call Honor it’s Military defenders who left life behind with their Oath intact ,Ttheir resting places in death lay across this world and to their last breath the one peace they felt as they lay dying was their country would always hold their worth to the highest Honor mortal man is capable of and to the man not one of them would buy another day with Coward-is and yet we show the world that Oath and Honor has no value above that of a Coward … I am Embarrassed and feel shame in their eyes for this country
BLR says
go ahead and be politically correct and let history mark him a Deserter in my eyes and his enemy’s eyes he is a Coward unwilling to defend his peoples way of life .
capner says
So, where was this trial held?
BareNakedIslam says
It was a military trial, which makes this decision even more outrageous. Must be leftovers from the Obama Regime, who fired all the good generals.
Peter35 says
Deserter in a war zone, traitor–should have been shot!
And now his lawyer has the cheek to appeal: “This will ruin my client’s future life….”
Well, it certainly ruined the lives of some of those who went looking for this POS!!
capner says
You gotta be shitting me.