Bowe Bergdahl Escapes Prison Time For Endangering U.S. Troops After Deserting Post

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Bowe Bergdahl
Bowe Bergdahl

US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who admitted deserting his post before being imprisoned by the Taliban for five years, got a big break on Friday. A federal judge spared him him jail time and gave him a dishonorable discharge and a fine of $1,000 a month for the next 10 months.

President Trump had famously called Bergdahl a “dirty, rotten traitor” and said he should be executed or returned to the Taliban. He expressed anger with Friday’s verdict in a tweet. 

The New York Post has more details: 

The disgraced soldier, whose disappearance resulted in serious injuries to other military personnel who were searching for him, was also stripped of his rank by the judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance.

Bergdahl, who was held prisoner and tortured by the Taliban for five years after he walked away from his Afghanistan outpost in 2009, pleaded guilty last month to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.

He was released by the Obama administration in May 2014 in a controversial exchange for five Guantanamo Bay detainees.

He originally faced up to life in prison, but prosecutors asked for just a sentence of 14 years behind bars.

Bergdahl’s lawyers had asked Nance to give the disgraced soldier a dishonorable discharge.

Photo: Getty Images

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