Bergdahl wins partial victory
Y’all remember Bo Bergdahl, the fella who went AWOL in Afghanistan and was captured by the Taliban. You know, the one who was feted as a hero by Obama – before being tried for collaborating with the enemy? One of the things Bergdahl tried to hang his hat on was that then-candidate Trump said bad things about him, supposedly exercising undue command influence on his court-martial. The fact that Trump was a candidate at the time and not the commander-in-chief seems to have escaped him.
A federal judge has ruled partially in favor of former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in his bid to throw out the verdict of his court-martial but rejected his claim that President Donald Trump and the late Sen. John McCain exercised unlawful command influence in the case.
That’s the good news, that the ‘undue command influence’ has been thrown out. However:
Senior Judge Reggie Walton, of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an order March 31 partially granting the federal government’s motion to dismiss the Bergdahl case, rejecting the former soldier’s argument that comments made by Trump and McCain unduly influenced his military proceedings.
But Walton granted Bergdahl’s motion for a summary judgment on the soldier’s claim that the military judge who presided over his case did not disclose that he had applied for a civilian position at the Justice Department while the court-martial was underway — a failure that Bergdahl argues denied him a fair trial.
In his order, Walton did not stipulate what the decision will mean for Bergdahl or for the case. Walton promised that the complete ruling and his reasoning behind it would be revealed in an opinion “to be issued … within the next sixty days.”
Not sure that the military judge had applied for a civilian job with the Feds makes the case that he was not impartial, especially when you consider it was a military court which brought charges, not DOJ. No matter what, sounds like there may be more to come on the Bergdahl brouhaha.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army
The last half of that sentence explains the first.
Guy should have just been shot.
Period.
Nope, too honorable.. hung would have been better.
And buried in that unmarked, walled off section of the cemetery with a numbered brick for a marker.
With a piss tube for visitors.
Should’ve left him there being the Manlove Thursday plaything for the Taliban.
I’m sure the Commie-sar will come in to defend him as a hero.
Birds of a feather…
Since they both (likely) fucked people over — in their own ways.
Both belong in the Blue Falcon Club.
PHUQUE HEEM! Let his #1 fan boi oblowme look out for him.
UCI was always a non-started because neither Trump nor McCain were in the COC at the time or ever in the case of McCain.
UCI isn’t something to mess around with though. I saw a rape case get thrown out over a battalion commander running his mouth and similar type stuff.
Don’t know about the Judge thing, that is a new one by me. Military judges are essentially just JAG/TDS lawyers that are high performing or well connected and made a spot. They are always senior and retire relatively young like everyone else. And then go work for other parts of the Fed, often as an administrative court judge (IRS, FAA, FTC ETC)
Scumball motherfucker.
JFC, I was in charge of some stupid soldiers that did some stupid shit that got me chewed up one side and back down the other, but none of them did anything on par with this idiot. I can’t even imagine his team leader and squad leader freaking out when nobody could find him that night on the COP.
The judge’s application for a DOJ position was pending during the trial, which creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interest.
An appearance of a conflict exists because the application for a DOJ position within the Trump administration (the court proceeding took place in 2017 when Trump was, in fact, president) was in play during a trial for a man the current president had called a “dirty rotten traitor” while a candidate….a case can be made that a judge looking to work for that president might be influenced to direct the case to an outcome favorable to that president and a reasonable person could believe that the judge thus had a conflict of interest.
Not that I want to defend Bergdahl but undue command influence could also have been found to exist because Trump was the CinC during the trial which started on May 5th, 2017 with the first pre-trial hearing. Once Bergdahl plead guilty sentencing was scheduled for October 23, 2017.
In fact one week before Bergdahl’s sentencing on October 16th, 2017 Trump stated he “couldn’t comment on the case but people knew his opinion based on previous statements. Which sounds a lot like Trump telling people to go back and see what he said about Bergdahl previously.
The appellate decision may yet go against Bergdahl, we’ll have to see in six days what the actual outcome is at that moment.
He never should have been allowed in the military in the first place. But the Army was giving 20% of recruits waivers in 2008, so being discharged out of Coast Guard basic for being a nut job wasn’t a dis-qualifier for the Army, apparently because they needed the personnel.
All in all a cluster fuck of a situation….give a mentally ill guy a waiver to join, be surprised when the does something that seems mentally ill, then try him and sentence him when he should never have been allowed in to start with.
Whenever someone says; “I can’t comment” no comments should follow that.
So in such a case they can retry him, can they not. That judge didn’t throw out the verdict, he just said the court martial was tainted.
Contrast this waste of skin to USMC Private First Class, Aimal Taraki. Berdghdal needs to shuttup and consider himself lucky to still be drawing breath. Execution was absolutely warranted.
This man is a hero worthy of everyone’s admiration…
Okay, I almost made myself vomit typing that. One thing I find funny, having done a quick Wikipedia scan to ensure I got at least one or two facts right is that he wrote this in an email to his parents: “… but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank … “. Quite ironic considering this shitbag private was handed Sergeant rank during his voluntary captivity.
Bergdahl is an example of the weak kid who somehow both failed to adapt to military service and avoided getting weeded out during training and his initial unit integration. I can guarantee he wouldn’t have deployed if he were in my unit back in ’03…our NCOs were very good at identifying POS’ and the few who couldn’t cut it at all were kept stateside while the ones who were barely useful were sent to 101st AVN to become door gunners.
I almost hate to say it, but Bradley “Chelsea” Manning is more of a man than Bergdahl, at least he/”she” didn’t run away from a base and get others killed.
True. We chaptered a knucklehead in one week, from start to finish, because my scout PSG did not want to take him into OIF I
Didn’t they bust him to E-1 along with the bad paper discharge?
Bet his hippie parents are proud of him “stickin’ it to The Man” now…
If Barry said his service was honorable, how can it be anything else?
It’s pure coincidence you posted this on Man Love Thursday.
Pure coincidence, I’m sure.
I’m not even going to waste my anger on this piece of sugar honey ice tea anymore. F this guy. That’s all.