Bergdahl lawyer slams candidate Trump over ‘traitor’ comments

One of those fired-up men was Bergdahl’s attorney Eugene Fidell, who has taught military justice at Yale Law School.

In exchange, Trump said, the enemy got “five of the people they wanted, five killers back on the battlefield”.

“This is the lowest kind of demagoguery”, he said.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released in 2014 after spending about five years as a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Bergdahl disappeared from Combat Outpost Mest-Lalak in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 30, 2009. Bowe Bergdahl preparing to be interviewed by Army investigators in August. An Army spokesman, however, told Courthouse News that the Department of Defense repeatedly emphasized there is “no linkage” between Bergdahl’s disappearance and these soldiers’ deaths.

Bergdahl faces life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him, misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit of place.

Trump echoed a similar sentiment during the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland on August . 6.

Bergdahl is scheduled to appear at an Article 32 hearing, the Uniform Code of Military Justice equivalent of a grand jury, at Ft.

“Nor, as a practical matter, is he in a position, for the moment, to bring the defamation lawsuit Mr. Trump richly deserves”, he said.

“[Trump’s comments] directly threaten my client’s right to a fair trail”, he said. Still, the charges are a far cry from treason, which Fidell noted carries a “unique stigma” as “the only crime described in the Constitution”.

In a statement, Fidell condemned what he said was Trump’s “reckless disregard for the truth” and said Bergdahl’s defense team would keep track of the candidate’s public statements. “He should be ashamed of himself”. At a town hall in New Hampshire this week, he also claimed that U.S. servicemembers died while searching for Bergdahl.

He added that Army prosecutors have said they will not offer any evidence that anyone died looking for his client. “I call on the Secretary of the Army to put this false and damaging rumor to rest once and for all”.

In a statement released Thursday, attorney Eugene Fidell said Trump’s derision of Bergdahl as a “dirty, rotten traitor” was “contemptible and un-American” and threatened to color the opinions of jurors in a potential court-martial.

Fidell slammed Trump’s remarks as “unfounded” and reminded Bergdahl’s not been charged with treason.