No, Trump didn’t affect the Bergdahl sentence

The social media and the media is chocked full of accusations from the Left and the “Never Trump” crowd that Bergdahl didn’t get any jail time because of President Trump’s ill-considered comments during the Presidential campaign. Bergdahl’s lawyers even blamed Trump for the decision.

For example, Peter Bergen, CNN analyst writes;

Finally, the judge said he would also weigh prejudicial statements made by President Trump about the case as a mitigating factor. The military is very sensitive to the issue of undue “command influence” in the military justice system.

When he was a candidate, Trump often called Bergdahl a traitor who should be executed, and just last month when he was asked about Bergdahl, the commander in chief said, “I think people have heard my comments in the past.”

Even though his own comments proved to be a factor in the judge giving Bergdahl leniency, Trump didn’t hold back in criticizing the decision Friday. On Twitter, Trump said the judge’s decision is “a complete disgrace to our Country and to our Military.”

The New York Times adds;

Ironically, Mr. Trump’s comments may have contributed to the decision not to sentence him to prison. After Mr. Trump seemed last month to endorse his harsh criticism from the campaign trail, Colonel Nance ruled that he would consider the comments as mitigating evidence at sentencing.

With the sentence still facing review by General Abrams and military appellate judges, Mr. Trump’s post-verdict comments on Twitter seemed to bolster efforts by the defense to have the sentence thrown out on appeal, some military law experts said, on the grounds that the president had unlawfully influenced the case.

I guess everyone is forgetting that the investigating officer, Major General Kenneth Dahl recommended that Bergdahl avoid jail time, over two years ago, according to CNN’s own reportage;

Though Bergdahl was not duty-bound to comply with the investigation, he did so and submitted to a day and a half interview. Bergdahl did not exercise his right to silence at the start of the interview, Dahl said.

Dahl said he didn’t “believe there is a jail sentence at the end of this process.”

So Colonel Jeffrey Nance was only conceding to the investigating officer’s recommendations when he left a jail sentence out. That makes more sense to me than a watered-down sentence because of a presidential candidate’s comments during a political campaign.

By the way, Marine Robert R. Garwood was convicted of collaborating with the North Vietnamese and he didn’t serve any jail time either after his 1981 conviction.

Category: Army News