The attorney for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said he may call GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump to the stand, adding the business mogul may have compromised the former Taliban prisoner’s right to a fair trial with inflammatory comments that have sought to incite a “lynch mob.”
Eugene Fidell said last week that Trump’s public comments calling Bergdahl a “traitor” and saying that he should have “been shot” may have compromised his client’s ability to have a fair trial.
“There’s been a pattern here that is so extensive that it has certainly raised in the mind of the defense team whether Sgt. Bergdahl’s right to a fair trial has been irreparably compromised by Donald Trump’s comments,” Fidell said on CNN on Friday. “He may wind up facing a defamation case down the road, but right now my concern is whether he’s compromised my client’s right to a fair trial.”
Bergdahl wandered away from his post in Afghanistan in 2009. He was allegedly trying to reach a neighboring base to report serious concerns about his unit’s leadership, he said during NPR’s “Serial” podcast.
Shortly after leaving the U.S. outpost, Bergdahl was taken captive by the Talban and held for five years. Last year, Bergdahl returned to the U.S. in a controversial prisoner swap that saw five Taliban detainees freed from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for his safe return. He has been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.
Fidell said he has not yet decided with his military attorney partners whether Trump will be called to the witness stand, but said he has compiled eight pages of remarks from the businessman that he said have been like a “lynch mob, actually, to incite ill will and vilification of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.”
