President Trump, who is currently on board Air Force One and on his way to Hawaii for the first leg of his 10-day trip to Asia, has issued a response to Army Judge Col. Jeffery R. Nance's ruling Friday morning that admitted deserter Bowe Bergdahl will not face prison time.
The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
According to reporting from the trial, Nance considered President Trump's previous comments about Bergdahl when deliberating over his sentencing.
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — President Trump’s harsh criticism of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his Army post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the Taliban, will weigh in favor of a lighter sentence for the sergeant, a military judge said on Monday.
“I will consider the president’s comments as mitigation evidence as I arrive at an appropriate sentence,” the judge, Col. Jeffery R. Nance of the Army, said during a hearing at Fort Bragg. The judge is expected to sentence Sergeant Bergdahl in the next few weeks.
The judge rejected a request that he dismiss the case or cap the length of the sentence on the grounds that the president’s comments had precluded a fair hearing. The judge said he had not been influenced by the remarks and that the public’s confidence in the military justice system had not been undermined.
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