Last year, President Barack Obama negotiated a deal in which Bergdahl was returned to the U.S. in exchange for the release of five senior Taliban commanders. Bergdahl desertion charges rekindle debate over Taliban swap Some Afghanistan veterans charged that soldiers had been killed or hurt while searching for Bergdahl.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is facing life in prison on charges of desertion and misbehavior in the face of the enemy — and President Barack Obama is facing more blowback over his handling of the case.

The Army on Wednesday referred Bergdahl’s case to the military equivalent of a grand jury, known as an Article 32 proceeding. And Col. Daniel King, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Forces Command, said that process will determine whether the case goes to a full court martial, which would finally try him and determine any potential punishment.


If convicted Bergdahl, who left his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held by the Taliban and other terrorist groups for five years, faces prison, demotion and forfeiture of the back pay he earned as the Army promoted him in his absence during his time in terrorist hands. Army officials in Texas will determine when the Article 32 moves forward, King said.

Bergdahl and his legal team have not begun any negotiations on a plea agreement or other arrangement, his attorney said Wednesday, nor have they been able to meet with the “convening authority” in the investigation, Gen. Mark Milley.

“We ask that all Americans continue to withhold judgment until the facts of this case emerge,” said lawyer Eugene Fidell. “We also ask that government officials refrain from leaking information or engaging in other conduct that endangers our client’s right to a fair trial.”

The decision to charge Bergdahl belonged to Milley, the head of the Army Forces Command. Critics call it an embarrassment for the president, who held a press conference with Bergdahl’s parents last year to trumpet his return. Later, national security adviser Susan Rice went on the Sunday talk shows to defend what she called Bergdahl’s “honorable” service.

Veterans and their families circulated bitter messages about Bergdahl on social networks Wednesday, charging that soldiers had been killed or wounded while searching for Bergdahl after he left his post. The Pentagon has said it can’t make any solid connection between searches for Bergdahl and troops killed or wounded in action, explaining that units were assigned to both search and conduct normal patrols or other operations.

One senior Defense Department official, anticipating the wave of criticism about the handling of the case, offered a pre-emptive defense, even before King announced the charges.

“This doesn’t change the fact that we should have brought him home,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. “We don’t outsource our justice to the Taliban.”

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment, referring questions to the Pentagon.

Bergdahl has been posted to a base in San Antonio since returning to the U.S. last year after five years as the captive of extremist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The soldier disappeared from his base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009 and eventually passed from the Taliban into the hands of the criminal Haqqani Network.

Last year, the Obama administration negotiated a deal in which Bergdahl was returned in exchange for the release of five senior Taliban commanders from the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The Afghans flew to Qatar, which helped manage the deal, with the agreement they’d stay there under surveillance for one year.

On Tuesday, Obama announced he has extended his planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year, citing an improved relationship with its new co-presidents. Nearly 10,000 American troops will now stay in Afghanistan for the rest of the year, instead of that number dropping by about half as previously planned.

Bergdahl “will be eternally grateful to President Obama for having saved his life,” Fidell said in a letter to Milley, released Wednesday. “Had President Obama not exerted himself, Sgt. Bergdahl would likely have been murdered.”

Congressional Republicans, however, continue to complain that Obama had paid too high a price for Bergdahl, that he’d effectively negotiated with terrorists and that he’d kept Congress in the dark about a decision in which it should have played a role.

On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.) an outspoken member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the release of the so-called Taliban Five had imperiled Americans by putting dangerous enemies back onto the battlefield.

“I’ve said from Day One: It’s not the quality of the service that bothered me,” Graham told reporters. “If it had been a Medal of Honor [recipient], I would not have made this trade. No military member should expect their nation to release five Taliban commanders that would undercut the war effort to secure their release.”

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) focused on what he called the Obama administration’s illegal handling of the Bergdahl release — the administration did not notify Congress before the release of the Taliban detainees, he argued, the way it should have.

“This case has been made more difficult by the administration’s failure to follow the law surrounding the release of the Taliban Five,” Thornberry said. “But Sgt. Bergdahl’s conduct should be considered under the Uniform Code of Military Justice as would any other service member’s, and I trust it will be.”

House Speaker John Boehner was more blunt, saying he was still concerned about the president’s decision to “release five hardened terrorists, with no guarantees that they won’t return to the battlefield.”

“I believe it made Americans less safe,” the Ohio Republican said. “Knowing that the United States does not negotiate with terrorists is one of our greatest protections, and now it is compromised.”

In the Senate, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, made clear Bergdahl was “innocent until proven guilty,” but said there appears to be “enough evidence to suggest he didn’t meet the highest standards of the United States Army.”

Asked about the prisoner swap to obtain Bergdahl’s release, Reed, a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger, said, “I think what it does is say we get people home, and then we make sure that their performance was at the highest standards of the military.”

Austin Wright and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.