The Army is considering overturning Bowe Bergdahl’s sentence- UPDATE
The Army’s appeals court is weighing whether to throw out Bowe Bergdahl’s conviction. (Andrew Craft /The Fayetteville Observer via AP)
UPDATE: Bowe Bergdahl loses unlawful command influence appeal based on Trump tweets
One of our ninjas informs us that Bergdahl and his lawyers have lost the appeal, and plan to take the case to civilian court.
The Bowe Bergdahl case was briefly back in court this summer, as attorneys for the former soldier argued that President Donald Trump’s comments about a conviction and prison time amounted to undue command influence and interfered with his right to a fair trial.
The Army Court of Criminal Appeals convened a three-judge panel to hear the case, and in a 2-1 ruling affirmed Bergdahl’s guilty plea and previous sentence — a reduction in rank to private, a $10,000 fine and a dishonorable discharge.
Bergdahl’s attorney told Army Times that the legal team now plans to appeal to the civilian court with jurisdiction over the U.S. armed forces in Washington, D.C.
Good luck with that.
I don’t think Bowe Bergdahl needs an intro here, and I also think we’re all pretty much in agreement he got off very lightly for his desertion. Excuses of undue command influence from Trump pale in the minor fact he was not the Commander-In-Chief, nor was he expected to be, when his comments were made.
Army Times reports:
By: Meghann Myers
The Bowe Bergdahl case went back to court on Thursday, when the Army heard an appeal arguing that President Donald Trump’s comments about a conviction and prison time for the former soldier amounted to undue command influence and interfered with his right to a fair trial.The Army Court of Criminal Appeals convened a three-judge panel to hear the case, according to the court docket.
“The president has tainted everything,” Eugene Fidell, a Yale Law School lecturer and former Coast Guard judge advocate who represented Bergdahl, told the panel, Military.com reported on Friday.
Bergdahl, then a sergeant, pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in 2017, for deserting his post in 2009 while deployed to Observation Post Mest-Malak in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, with 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
He was quickly captured by insurgents and held hostage until 2014, when the Obama administration negotiated his return in exchange for five Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The judge in his case did not sentence him to prison, instead ordering him busted down to private, a fine of $10,000 and a dishonorable discharge.
Trump weighed in multiple times over the proceedings, tweeting and making public comments that favored his execution.
Hat tip to Boomer for the link. Read the rest of the article here: Army Times
Category: Afghanistan, Army News, Crime, Guest Link, Legal
You have got to be sh—-ing me!!
That is all.
What is next? Overturning Calley’s conviction as well?
Of course, it does not help that many high profile cases turn out to be complete BS….
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/06/26/soldier-convicted-of-massacring-16-afghans-seeks-new-civilian-trial-citing-a-psychosis-inducing-anti-malarial-drug/
I love this crap – especially as I had just arrived in Kandahar when he pulled this.
Hells to the naaaahhhh. Oh…wait…Yeah let’s throw out that conviction and sentence this deserting POS to what he deserved…Death by hanging, not firing squad, but hanging.
Use a brand new rope (I’ll buy) and let the survivors of the ones we lost looking for his sorry ass pull the trap door lever. Film at 11.
Right. Death by rifle fire is a soldier’s death. Hanging is the death of a coward.
I’d rather see Bergdahl meet his death via scaphism.
unfortunately our justice system does not allow for such methods…though deserved. Maybe we should just have him incur the same wounds that those who tried to help him received. So he can live with the results of his own stupidity.
I’m sure we can shoot him in the leg and smash his hand to uselessness, but I might not get it quite right with the head wound that causes him to go mute…he might flinch.
A frontal lobotomy would do the trick. 🙂
Trump will now get blamed for starting the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish American War, Boer War, Russian Revolution, WW1, WW2, Korean War, JFK’s shooting death and the Vietnam War. Remember that this isn’t covered/Taught in the schools anymore so it’s easy to blame Trump for the above. We could go back to the fall of Rome but that would be stretching it a little.
Hey, David Hogg survive World War II, Korea, ‘Nam and Desert Storm… so it’s only fair (in left/libtards’ warped minds) to blame Trump for wars since and including the Revolutionary one, too.
Bergdahl got off light already: dishonorable discharge for running away in combat, plus a $10K fine (at $1k/month) and a time served credit for getting his ass beat every day for 5 years by the Taliban. (He could’ve gotten the death penalty for being a stupid snowflake.)
Turn him loose with an ankle bracelet.
Around his neck. Trailing a rope. Wire rope.
Frayed.
Rusted.
Previously used on a manure spreader.
The saddest part of this continuing tragedy is the mistake the US Army made allowing Bergdahl to enlist in 2008. In 2006, he entered basic training in the Coast Guard but was discharged after just 26 days for psychological reasons and received an “uncharacterized discharge”. Bergdahl was psychologically unfit to serve in the Army and should have never received an enlistment waiver.
I don’t condone Bergdahl’s actions in AFG however, I have even less sympathy for the Army’s complicitness in this travesty.
You’re absolutely right. I’m not holding my breath that those responsible for signing off on his enlisting get punished.
The Army ( and other Services) made tons of exceptions to let people in who shouldnt be there. It’s part of what happens in wartime.
Only ONE deserted to the enemy in this era.
Slovik deserved to be executed too.
Also, IIRC, Slovik didn’t run off to visit with the enemy.
“The president has tainted everything,” Eugene Fidell, a Yale Law School lecturer and former Coast Guard judge advocate who represented Bergdahl, told the panel,…”
Yale Law School grad? that says pisspants foreskin-fluffing SNOWFLAKE right there IMHO.
IMHO Bergdahl got off lightly, I still think he should have faced a count of Manslaughter for each Soldier that was KIA looking of him as well, may the day he was born be erased from the Calendar!
Once heard a quip from a judge who was one of my mentors. He said that in the case of many death penalty convicts, their defense attorneys should occupy the second chair with their clients in the gas chamber. He was kidding or course.
Or was he???
He should’ve been left to live out the rest of his days with his Taliban buddies. Where he could happily die beside them in a hellfire strike. Insh’alllah, bitch.
“In the old days when we were strong and wise, we [would] shoot a guy like that,” he said in 2015, as he campaigned for president. – article
UPDATE: Bowe Bergdahl loses unlawful command influence appeal based on Trump tweets.
How can someone who was NOT in office in 2015 exercise “undue command influence”?
That was a weak, lame argument to begin with. Weak and irrelevant. But now they’re going to go through a civilian court. Okay, sure – whatever!
How’s about if those three who were so badly wounded that they were medically discharged/retired sue Bergdahl? He’s just looking for money, and a book contract, and TV appearances. He’s a jerk, period, ruining other peoples’ lives with no thought to the consequences.
For someone who had a lot of influence, they damn sure ignored what he wanted. ( Execution or life Sentence…)
Just more of Obama’s “LEGACY”. For this reprobate we traded five international killers.
Plus, we secretly gave a big pile of cash to the Taliban, according to some of the SF guys there at the transfer.
Geez, you folks seem to have a lot of problems with this and there is such a easy solution for this, all you need is a helicopter, pair of handcuffs, 300 foot heavy steel safety cable and a faulty parachute and give him a ride. Hands cuffed behind back, safety cable secured around neck snugly and anchored to chopper, chute that don’t deploy and 10,000 feet and have him jump with promise that if he lands safely he can live. What could go wrong, oh wait, AW would volunteer to pilot and as soon as the sucker went out the door he would hit the up button inside the chopper. Oh well. Just kinda wonder why he always appears in public in uniform and with stripes on sleeves, thought he was stripped and kicked out.
Yes, Bergdahl was reduced in rank to PVT E1 before being thrown out.
That this is even still being discussed is beyond my imagination. On the other hand, only in this country do we so proudly display our lunatics and their antics. All part of that illusive thing we call freedom.
Then again, just how high a price are we supposed to pay for nut cases to wander free among us while only some of us are seriously expected to behave civilly? For this nut case, the price was much too high.
Whatever happens he should be shunned. For the rest of his life. And the recruiter that got him in
May ALL of Bergdahl’s appeals be denied!
We should all remember that Bergboi was never an NCO. He was promoted to SGT (E-5) when he was being held by the Taliban. He was never in charge of anyone or anything other than his own ass. Also, I would like to know whether he will get all that back pay minus the $10K penalty. Anyone here know the answer?
I’m thinking the DD carries a “forfeiture of all pay and allowances” rider.
Could be wrong/Not A Lawer.
Where are this shitbird’s parental units, who were so prominent in this publicity fuster cluck?
If I missed something, I’m sure I will quickly be informed.
Les Brown is sending him fan mail. “Hey, dude, I’m getting caught up in my own shit. How’d ya do it?”
Karma isn’t finished with this Shitbird
The CCA’s opinion is here –
https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/Apps/ACCAOpinions/ACCAOpinions.nsf/OD/486153099F6994AE8525843A005620B1/$FILE/oc-bergdahl,%20rb.pdf