{"id":18380,"date":"2017-02-27T10:21:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T15:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=18380"},"modified":"2017-02-27T10:21:45","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T15:21:45","slug":"trumps-traitor-allegations-dont-warrant-bergdahl-dismissal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/02\/27\/trumps-traitor-allegations-dont-warrant-bergdahl-dismissal\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s \u2018Traitor\u2019 Allegations Don\u2019t Warrant Bergdahl Dismissal"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Courthouse News) – 2\/27\/17 – A military judge Friday\u00a0<\/span>refused to dismiss<\/a>\u00a0charges against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, finding that Donald Trump\u2019s repeated criticism of the former Taliban detainee was merely \u201cinflammatory campaign rhetoric\u201d that does not make it impossible for him to receive a fair trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cCandidate Trump\u2019s comments were disturbing and disappointing; however, they do not rise to the level of \u2018some evidence\u2019 required for the defense to meet its initial burden,\u201d Army Judge Col. Jeffery Nance wrote in the Feb. 24 ruling.<\/p>\n

Bergdahl, 30, faces an April court-martial at Fort Bragg on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for walking away from his post in Afghanistan in 2009. He could spend the rest of his life in a military prison if found guilty of misbehavior.<\/p>\n

Bergdahl\u2019s attorneys\u00a0<\/span>argued<\/a>\u00a0that Trump violated Bergdahl\u2019s right to due process and violated military law against unlawful command influence.<\/p>\n

In a motion to dismiss, filed the day of Trump\u2019s inauguration, Bergdahl\u2019s attorneys included a 28-minute video exhibit featuring candidate Trump\u2019s numerous references to Bergdahl as a \u201ctraitor,\u201d \u201ca no-good traitor,\u201d and \u201ca dirty, rotten traitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump described Bergdahl as a \u201ctraitor\u201d at least 156 times, according to the motion, and called him a \u201cson of a bitch\u201d who should be killed, and added that he, Trump, would be willing to kill him himself.<\/p>\n

In his ruling Friday, Col. Nance called Trump\u2019s statements \u201ctroubling,\u201d but said they did not prejudice the Army\u2019s case against Bergdahl.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo reasonable member of the public, apprised of all the facts and circumstances and seeing campaign rhetoric for what it is, would believe that because candidate Trump said those troubling things and is now President Trump, the accused has been or will be denied a fair trial,\u201d Nance wrote.<\/p>\n

He found that Trump\u2019s disparagement of Bergdahl was meant to contrast Trump with his political opponents, and that \u201cthe accused was merely the foil for delivering that political message.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

Nance added that Trump has not made public comments about Bergdahl since August, which supports \u201cstrong circumstantial evidence that his comments were nothing more than inflammatory campaign rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bergdahl\u2019s attorney Eugene Fidell said he would appeal to the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issues presented are of tremendous significance for the rule of law in the armed forces and the integrity of the military justice system,\u201d Fidell told The New York Times.<\/p>\n

Bergdahl\u2019s next motions hearing date is pending. His trial is set for April 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Courthouse News) – 2\/27\/17 – A military judge Friday\u00a0refused to dismiss\u00a0charges against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, finding that Donald Trump\u2019s repeated criticism of the former Taliban detainee was merely \u201cinflammatory campaign rhetoric\u201d that does not make it impossible for him to receive a fair trial. \u201cCandidate Trump\u2019s comments were disturbing and disappointing; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18384,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380\/revisions\/18384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}