Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will be dishonorably discharged and lose pay with his rank reduced to private. But he won’t face jail time for deserting his Afghan outpost in 2009.
That’s the verdict of a military judge at his court martial — a decision that President Trump called a “total disgrace.”
“Prosecutors had argued Bergdahl should spend 14 years behind bars for endangering U.S. troops in Afghanistan,” noted the BBC. “He spent five years in Taliban captivity after abandoning his post.”
“The judge, Army Col. Jeffery R Nance, considered the president’s attacks as a mitigating factor in sentencing Bergdahl, whose lawyers argued he could not receive a fair trial because of the comments.”
Bergdahl has apologized to the troops who were wounded in the search for him.
The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
Reactions were mixed — and brutal: