In a surprising move following three years of legal wrangling, several sources indicate that former Ft. Sam Houston Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will plead guilty (referred to in the Uniform Code of Military Justice as pleading 'true') later this month to both of the charges he is facing, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Bergdahl is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, charges which carry up to life in prison. There is no word whether Bergdahl's guilty plea will carry any sort of sentence agreement.
Bergdahl vanished from his forward operating post in Afghanistan in 2009. He claimed he was going AWOL to call attention to what he saw as poor leadership in his command.
But Bergdahl was instead captured by the Taliban and spent five hellish years being tortured and confined to a tiny cage. He was finally released in May of 2014 in a very controversial trade for five 'high ranking' Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Several factors entered into Bergdahl's legal jockeying.
Helping the prosecution was a military judge's order that soldiers who were wounded while searching for Bergdahl could testify at the court martial.
Bergdahl also asked that statements made by Donald Trump on the campaign trail, in which he called Bergdahl a 'no good traitor' and mimicked shooting him with a rifle, not not constitute undue command interference, even though Trump is now Commander in Chief and the de facto commander of the court martial judge.
Despite Trump's comments, Bergdahl was never charged with treason and does not face the death penalty.
Benefitting the defense is the fact that under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, prosecutors, to prove the desertion charge, will have to demonstrate that Bergdahl left his assigned position 'never intending to return.' Since he was captured by the enemy, there is no way they could have proven what Bergdahl's long term plans were
.A judge at Fort Bragg, North Carolina is expected to begin deciding punishment for Bergdahl later this month.