Lawyers clashed Tuesday morning at a preliminary hearing for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at Fort Bragg, N.C. He sneaked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held for five years by the Taliban.
Advertisement
Classified documents were at the center of Tuesday’s motions in a pre-trial hearing for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. “We encourage the government to correct that”. The Pentagon’s inspector general on December 9, 2015, has told a House panel investigating the five Taliban Guantanamo Bay detainees released in exchange for Bergdahl that it found no evidence that a ransom was ever attempted or paid to secure the soldier’s release. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison for desertion and life in prison on the misbehavior charge.
Prosecutor Capt. Michael Petrusic estimated the discovery process could involve more than 300,000 pages.
Throughout the hearing, Bergdahl remained mostly silent, answering three questions from Nance, “Yes, sir”.
There is still no plea or word if Bergdahl will choose a military judge or a military jury to determine verdict.
While Rosenblatt said his team must be granted greater access to that information in order to properly prepare Bergdahl’s defense, the prosecution argued safeguards must be in place to protect the unauthorized leak of classified information.
The judge will rule later on the access to classified information. The volume of material is a sign of the complexity of the case, he added.
Nance did not set a date for Bergdahl’s next court appearance.
Advertisement
“Army human resources officials likely will address this in the future”, spokesman Paul Boyce said.
