Bowe Bergdahl Defers Entering Plea At Arraignment

He was captured by the Taliban and spent five years in captivity before being freed in a prisoner exchange. In one of the few decisions to come out of Tuesday’s hearing, Bergdahl told Frederikson he was pleased with his military and civilian counsel.

During his brief arraignment hearing at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, Bergdahl deferred offering a plea in what was his first court appearance pertaining to charges that could carry a life sentence in prison.

Bergdahl was held captive by the Taliban for nearly five years after officials say he left his outpost in Afghansitan. The general officer who led the Army’s exhaustive investigation of Bergdahl’s case also does not favor jail if Bergdahl is convicted at a court martial.

Bergdahl, 29, was ordered last week to face a court-martial after being charged earlier this year with desertion and endangering US troops.

Bergdahl’s lawyers have already protested that the charges go beyond what they see as the evidence against him and complained that remarks by Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump – who called Bergdahl a “dirty, rotten traitor” – may bias a jury.

Bergdahl did not say much but spoke confidently when he responded to the judge’s questions with answers of, “Yes, sir”, and “No, sir”. A new hearing in the case was set for January 12. Instead, Lt. Col. Mark Visger had recommended that Bergdahl’s case be referred to a special court-martial, which is a misdemeanor-level forum. In contrast, statistics show the U.S. Army prosecuted about 1,900 desertion cases between 2001 and the end of 2014. Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell, said politicians are using Bergdahl to push their agendas. Bergdahl has defended his actions, alleging that he walked off base in order to bring attention to leadership issues that he felt were putting his unit in danger. In the season premiere, Bergdahl said that he had “this fantastic idea that I was going to prove to the world that, you know, I was the real thing. I was trying to find a solution to the problem at hand”.