Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in his military hearing at Fort Bragg on Monday after expressing doubts he could get a fair trial.
Bergdahl, who was held prisoner by the Taliban for five years after he disappeared in Afghanistan in 2009, told a judge that he left his observation post on his own and that he understood that leaving it was against the law, according to CNN. Desertion can carry a five-year prison sentence and, according to the New York Times, the additional charge of endangering other soldiers can extend that sentence to life.
The Obama administration negotiated the Bergdahl’s release in 2014 by trading him for five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Obama experienced a backlash from many Republicans who considered Bergdahl a traitor.
Bergdahl had explained his desertion as an effort to draw attention to concerns he had about his commanding officers. He said he had planned to walk to another base, but a few hours after he left, he was captured and turned over to the Haqqani network in Pakistan, which tortured him in what some have called the worst prisoner abuse since the Vietnam War. His disappearance led to a large, years-long military search operation.
Whether the search can be blamed for the injuries of other soldiers has been debated. The Army prosecutors argued that two serious injuries could be and said that, regardless, the search forced the military to dramatically change its plans and operations, according to the Times. Bergdahl’s defense offered alternative explanations for those injuries.
A military doctor testified that Bergdahl exhibited symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder—a less intense variant of schizophrenia—at the time of his disappearance. The Army’s chief investigator testified that he believed Bergdahl had been delusional at the time, that he had not intended to desert, and that jailing him would be “inappropriate.”
Bergdahl and his defense team had expressed doubts he could get a fair trial, citing more than 45 comments Donald Trump made on the campaign trail calling Bergdahl a traitor. Trump also called for him to be shot.
“We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs that got what they wanted,” Bergdahl said in an interview with a British filmmaker. “The people who want to hang me, you’re never going to convince those people.”
