{"id":29525,"date":"2019-07-01T20:13:52","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T20:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/01\/the-army-is-considering-overturning-bowe-bergdahls-sentence\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:51:31","slug":"the-army-is-considering-overturning-bowe-bergdahls-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/07\/01\/the-army-is-considering-overturning-bowe-bergdahls-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army is considering overturning Bowe Bergdahl\u2019s sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Bowe Bergdahl case<\/a> went back to court on Thursday, when the Army heard an appeal arguing that President Donald Trump\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals<\/a> convened a three-judge panel to hear the case, according to the court docket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president has tainted everything,\u201d Eugene Fidell, a Yale Law School lecturer and former Coast Guard judge advocate who represented Berdahl, told the panel, Military.com<\/a> reported on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s Paktika province, with 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump weighed in multiple times over the proceedings, tweeting and making public comments that favored his execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the old days when we were strong and wise, we [would] shoot a guy like that,\u201d he said in 2015, as he campaigned for president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the trial, Bergdahl\u2019s legal team argued that Trump\u2019s comments had tainted the trial. The judge, Army Col. Jeffrey Nance, declared them mitigating evidence, which can reduce punishment in sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Fidell filed for an appeal. Officially, the appeals panel considered whether the president had an influence on court proceedings even if he doesn\u2019t preside over them, whether that influence placed \u201can intolerable strain on the public\u2019s perception of the military justice system” and whether the average person \u2014 with all the facts of the case in front of them \u2015 would have doubts about the fairness of the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\t