Bergdahl hires lawyer Fidell
According to the Christian Science Monitor, Sergeant Bergdahl has hired a Yale Law School teacher, Eugene Fidell, to represent him in the upcoming investigation of his five years spent as a prisoner of the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan;
Mr. Fidell has been a full-time lecturer at Yale for the past five years, and he served in the US Coast Guard. He is the co-founder of the National Institute of Military Justice and heads the committee on military justice for the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War.
While investigators have not yet spoken with Bergdahl, that is expected to happen “sometime in the near future,” says Wayne Hall, a spokesman for the Army.
Fidell has been a critic of the government’s Guantanamo policy, if you couldn’t tell by his bowtie.
Category: Military issues
See – told ya that the little punk lawyered up. Hmmm…
nbcguy54…That was my line but you beat me to it. Yea who else guessed the little twerp would lawyer up ASAP?
Living in San Antonio, I wish I had the money (and balls) to put up a big billboard “welcoming” him home. Probably wouldn’t be politically correct or very heart-warming, but I reckon he’d get the message.
Not surprisingly, he isn’t getting much press down here either. Probably something to do with the fact that a very large percentage of Slammin-tonians are retired and active duty military.
How ’bout those Spurs!
Out.
I’d rather talk about the Spurs than Bergdahl any day. Glad to see they’ve re-signed almost all of their free agents.
Investigators have not even talked to the deserter yet, and he is returned to duty?? WTF!?!?
As to his attorney, birds of a feather flock together… so no surprise the deserter would hire a critic of GITMO
Yet another development contradicting the claim that Bergdahl was such a great soldier. Who knew?
Cat’s out of the bag and GONE on this one.
$350,000 would buy a pretty good life south of the border. Wonder how long until he deserts again?
I’m surprised it took him this long to lawyer up, unless he was shopping for one to take his case pro bono.
Back on regular duty for almost 2 days and already has his lawyer. Probably had to wait for: 1) to be released from medical det and 2) for his fat check to clear the bank.
He’s not going to like what’s fixing to happen…
nbcguy54…My money says his attorney is working pro bono for the fame and press it will garner him. The new Johnnie Cochran of the day.
I bet your right.
On a separate note, wouldn’t it be a hoot if Mr. Fidell’s middle initial was “N” – how fitting would that be?
Eugene Fidell is extremely prominent in the field of military justice already (in fact, if you take a law school course on military justice, you’ll probably use his textbook). He does not need this case to secure his reputation.
Absent evidence to the contrary I suspect he is taking it for “a large sum of money.” Which is typical for civilian military justice practitioners. (He is a practicing lawyer with the firm of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, not just an academic.)
Like it or not, lawyering up is the smartest thing for Bergdahl to do. There’s are plenty of things to criticize about Bergdahl…but hiring a prominent military justice practitioner isn’t one of them.
Can’t help but love the fact that he’s an expert in military justice after having spent ZERO days in the military.
Out.
He’s a Coast Guard veteran, though that was a while ago.
Out.
He served on active duty as a JAG, and I believe served a complete reserve career after.
My extreme BAD. Looks like I’m due some running around the PT formation with my rifle held high. I missed that as some of his bios seem to have left that out. He still has a deserter for a client, but I might consider hiring him if he’s free…I still have an ex-wife who wants some of my money.
Recommend a different sort of practitioner. Court-martial can be gentler than divorce…
How true! Hell, 5 years with the Taliban can be gentler than divorce…(apparently).
“While investigators have not yet spoken with Bergdahl”
Good thing they put him back on duty. I mean what could go wrong….
Is the message that the “investigation” can finally begin now that he’s secured a lawer? Who woulda guessed that one.
So, why did the “investigation” not begin within hours of his disappearance? Yeah, we all know that it did, but for some reason we must pretend that it did not.
I believe that the investigation that started after his disappearance is still “open”, and in a legal sense this is just a continuation, albeit with a new lead investigator.
My guess would be that anything that he spoke of to his treatment/debrief team is considered confidential and off limits to the investigators. But, that doesn’t stop the investigators from asking the same questions when they interview him.
The bowtie died with Senator Paul Simon.
Fidell joined the Coast Guard right out of Hah-vahd Law school. That was 1969. The only thing I wonder is how Bergdahl ‘discovered’ him. My gut tells me that someone in The Emperor’s administration got the name and phone number to Bergdahl.
Wouldn’t be necessary…if they went to the family firm looking for a referral, and asked questions like “Who’s the number one man in the country for this kind of thing, if cost is no object?” — this is one of the big names they’d likely hit.
‘course for an investigation, the most important thing he needs is someone to tell him to shut his pie hole. And however much he pays someone to tell him that…it’s probably worth it.
Inasmusch as this is pro bono, well, I’m guessing that the referral took an unusual course. It’s neither here no there but the bizarre nature of this case, from the walk-away to the White House gathering makes me question every damn aspect of this matter.
Is it pro bono? The linked article doesn’t say so (in fact the title says he “hired” Fidell), but I haven’t looked around for further information.
This article dated today says Fidell took the case pro bono. So does this one from the LA Times, so I’d guess it’s likely true (2nd source confirmation).
For some reason the quote “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” comes to mind.
Thanks!
There’s another item that I find interesting. Yale scholar Fidell is married to Linda Greenhouse, the lefty former NYT reporter and commentator who is famed in her own right for covering the Supreme Court for decades. Name the social topic, I’ll tell you where she stands on it. I know my progressives! Coincidentally, she, is a senior research scholar at a prestigious law school. Guess which one. Here are the choices:
A) Yale
B) Yale
C) Yale
D) Yale
I’m sure his rights are now fully protected. Can we shoot him now. The kicker will be when he clams up and takes the fifth. On advice of council, of course. And all of the talibans computers crashed so they won’t be able to testify. Oh yes, and the dog ate his entire memory of the events surrounding his late night nature hike.
Pretty much game over.
They may get Bergdahl for deriliction of duty for walking off post without his weapon or permission, but unless something crazy comes up they will never get the chares of deserting to the enemy, collaboration etc to stick.
If he talks at all it will be to simply say everything he did and said was under duress.
He will get his Back Pay, promotion, Medically retired for PTSD and a fat 100% VA pension for the same.
Book and movie to follow.
I posted this on another blog, but for what its worth….
Likely outcome: He accepts an Article 15 for UA which then gives him an honorable discharge and some of his back pay (base pay, BAS, and housing allowance). He does not get POW Medal, POW status, or all the extra pay that entails (For the uninformed, the extra POW pay is a partial payment of TDY perdiem for the period of confinement).
FWIW, I don’t think the charges of desertion would survive the scrutiny of the Article 32 process before a JAG/Judge, based on the current facts as we know them and the legal requirements as written in the MCM.
The POW pay and medal are going to be a given, unless they can proove he worked with the Taliban, in which case a medal and 60-70 K isnt anything compared to tye time he will get.
Pretty sure its going to damn near be all or nothing with him.
I’m not so certain, but time will tell.
The final call will end up being secdef/Potus. Likely soon after the November election.
When you are being investigated by anyone for anything the stupidest thing you can do is cooperate.
“Lawyer” should be the only words you ever utter when someone in authority asks you a question. I’ve met a lot of shitbags who understand that and get a walk or close to a walk thanks to that nice 6 letter word. Lot of guys in jail who didn’t use that word when guys who did walked for the same shit.
Never trust the cops when they want to ask you a question downtown, if you’re not being arrested don’t go and don’t cooperate. They don’t much like that attitude but they’ll get over it and it sure beats jail…
There’s a lot of “veritas” in what you say there.
Yes. There is the legal process, and there is justice.
The two are not necessarily always the same.
Wait till he has some vino …
Just FYI, Fidell was an OCS classmate of mine in class 2-69 at Yorktown, VA. He was in platoon Alpha-2. I was a mustang in platoon Bravo-3, so I had little personal interaction with him. He was a reserve OC, and upon commissioning 6 June 1969 he was assigned to the Marine Inspection Office in Long Beach, CA.
He must have stayed in the reserve after his initial active duty obligation, and after 20 years of satisfactory service was transferred to the reserve retired list on 1 July 1989 as a Lieutenant Commander.
I’ve seen his name pop up from time to time over the years, usually involving some controversial military law cases.