The lead Army prosecutor in the case against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl criticized President Donald Trump in an opinion column in The Washington Post on Tuesday for his interference in the saga.
Justin Oshana made the comments after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces upheld last week Bergdahl's convictions and dishonorable discharge.
Oshana said he didn't "have a lot of sympathy for Bergdahl," who walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was later captured by Taliban fighters, emphasizing that "his actions caused immeasurable suffering to better men and women than he could ever hope to be."
But he also pointed out that the judges in the case stressed that what Trump said about Bergdahl was "troubling," "disturbing," "inaccurate" and "ill-advised," as the case could have been dismissed because of his comments.
Oshana said the saga became politicized when Bergdahl was released as part of a prisoner swap in 2014, as "critics of President Barack Obama attacked his decision to trade five high-ranking members of the Taliban for someone they labeled as a deserter, or worse, a traitor."
Oshana said there were numerous inaccuracies made about Bergdahl, including news reports that six soldiers died searching for him, although some were seriously wounded.
Oshana stressed that "We live in a time where truth falls victim to politically charged rhetoric and cable news trends more toward being entertainment than evidence-based journalism," adding the truth "certainly wasn’t present at any of the president’s campaign rallies or tweets."
He said that even though Bergdahl's actions weren't honorable, "like every American, he deserved to have his actions judged, not on the campaign trail, not on cable news, but in a court of law."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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