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March 28, 2024

Bowe Bergdahl could learn sentence as soon as today

Bowe Bergdahl

Andrew Craft/The Fayetteville Observer / AP

In this Sept. 27, 2017, file photo, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl leaves a motions hearing during a lunch break in Fort Bragg, N.C.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for five years by Taliban allies after walking off his post in Afghanistan, will soon learn his punishment after pleading guilty to endangering his comrades.

A military judge began deliberating Thursday after hearing closing arguments by defense attorneys, who asked for no prison time, and prosecutors who are seeking 14 years behind bars.

Army Col. Jeffery Nance said he would open court again Friday morning to continue deliberating. It wasn't clear when he would deliver the sentence.

Bergdahl faces up to life in prison for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.

In closing arguments, defense attorneys argued that Bergdahl already suffered enough confinement during five years of brutal captivity by Taliban allies. They asked the judge for a dishonorable discharge and no prison time. Their argument for leniency also cited harsh campaign-trail criticism by Donald Trump and Bergdahl's mental disorders.

Capt. Nina Banks, a defense attorney, said it wouldn't be justice to rescue Bergdahl from the Taliban "only to place him in a cell" now.

"Sgt. Bergdahl has been punished enough," Banks added. "Sgt. Bergdahl paid a bitter price for the choices that he made."

During the multiday sentencing hearing, Bergdahl himself testified that he was sorry for the wounds suffered by searchers. He also described brutal beatings by his captors, illness brought on by squalid conditions and maddening periods of isolation, most of it in a cramped cage.

A psychiatrist testified that Bergdahl's decision to leave his post was influenced by a schizophrenia-like condition called schizotypal personality disorder that made it hard to understand consequences of his actions, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder brought on partly by a difficult childhood.

Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 14 years in prison, citing serious wounds to service members who looked for Bergdahl.

"Sgt. Bergdahl does not have a monopoly on suffering as a result of his choices," said Maj. Justin Oshana, a prosecutor. Contrasting Bergdahl to the wounded searchers, he added, "The difference is, all the suffering stems from his choice."

Oshana also cited Bergdahl's own words to argue against the idea that his thinking was clouded. On a courtroom monitor he displayed quotes from an initial investigation after Bergdahl returned to the U.S. Bergdahl, who has said he walked off to draw attention to problems with his unit, described to an investigating officer how he envisioned the missing-soldier alert unfolding.

Bergdahl had said that the call goes "all the way up to Army command, it goes to Air Force, it goes to Marines. ... It goes to every high point and everybody finds out about it."

Bergdahl pleaded guilty Oct. 16. The judge has wide discretion on sentencing because he didn't strike a deal with prosecutors to limit his punishment. A bad conduct or dishonorable discharge would deprive Bergdahl of most or all his veterans' benefits.

The 31-year-old soldier from Hailey, Idaho, was brought home by President Barack Obama in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Obama said at the time that the U.S. does not leave its service members on the battlefield. Republicans roundly criticized Obama, and Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly calling Bergdahl a traitor who deserved death.