WASHINGTON -- Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who disappeared from his Army outpost in Afghanistan in 2009, was captured by the Taliban and was held by the Haqqani insurgent network until May, is being charged with desertion, the Army announced Wednesday.
Bergdahl, 28, also was charged with misbehavior before the enemy, which carries a maximum sentence of up to life in prison. The desertion charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The Army didn't disclose details of its case against Bergdahl and said it won't answer questions while the case is pending.
If he is tried and convicted, Bergdahl also could face a dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank and forfeiture of the pay he received while in captivity, Army officials said during a news conference at Fort Bragg, N.C.
The case will now go to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for a hearing that is similar to a grand jury in a civilian court. After that, a military tribunal will determine whether Bergdahl should be court-martialed.
A lawyer for Bergdahl, Eugene Fidell, said Wednesday that the sergeant's lawyers had not decided how they would proceed, including whether they would try to negotiate a discharge for Bergdahl in lieu of trial by court-martial.
"Just being charged with desertion doesn't mean he's going to go to court-martial. There are a lot of more steps in the process," a Defense Department official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Bergdahl, then a private first class, disappeared June 30, 2009, and was captured by the Taliban and held by members of the Haqqani network, an insurgent group tied to the Taliban that operates both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He was released in May in exchange for five Taliban officials who were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Since June, Bergdahl has been assigned to administrative duties at Fort Sam Houston.
The Army has never described the circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance from his Afghanistan post or his capture by the Taliban. He had been classified by the Army as "missing/captured."
The prisoner exchange for Bergdahl was met with contention in the United States. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized President Barack Obama for not alerting Congress to the swap beforehand.
Wednesday's announcement drew further criticism of the exchange from some lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security.
"President Obama endangered our national security and broke the law when he chose to negotiate with terrorists and release hardened enemy combatants from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bergdahl -- who many believed at the time was a deserter," McCaul said in a statement.
Military leaders have said the deal to free Bergdahl reflected a U.S. credo that no prisoners should be left behind. Obama said in June that the American deserved to come home "regardless of the circumstances" of his capture.
The Obama administration stood by the swap Wednesday.
"Was it worth it? Absolutely. We have a commitment to our men and women serving overseas, or in our military, defending our national security every day, that we will do everything we can to bring them home, and that's what we did in this case," State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said in an interview on Fox News.
But some war veterans criticized the decision to trade Taliban prisoners for a soldier who purportedly abandoned his unit. Members of Bergdahl's platoon accused him of voluntarily leaving his post and said he should be tried for desertion.
Even before the prisoner swap, questions about Bergdahl's loyalty were raised three years ago, when Rolling Stone magazine obtained email messages it said were sent by the soldier to his parents describing his disillusionment with the U.S. offensive in Afghanistan.
"I am sorry for everything," he wrote, according to the magazine. "The horror that is America is disgusting."
Military officials had a range of options for how to deal with Bergdahl, from declaring him innocent of any wrongdoing to charging him with being absent without leave or charging him with desertion.
The misbehavior charge against Bergdahl is rarely seen in military cases, typically reserved for shameful or cowardly conduct, said Daniel Conway, a military defense lawyer and the author of a forthcoming book on military crimes.
Conway said he wouldn't expect the Army to seek much prison time for Bergdahl because of his time as a Taliban captive, but officials needed to prosecute the case because a conviction means Bergdahl cannot collect special compensation as a prisoner of war.
"He did spend X number of years as a prisoner of the Taliban -- that certainly mitigates the need for him to be locked up," Conway said. "But as a political matter, I don't think we can stomach the possibility that he deserted his post and could receive $300,000 in back pay for it."
Some within the military have suggested that Bergdahl's long capture was punishment enough, but others, including members of his former unit, have called for serious punishment, saying other service members risked their lives -- and several died -- searching for him.
One of those in Bergdahl's platoon, Cody Full, 26, of Houston, said Bergdahl should be stripped of all his pay and benefits and be dishonorably discharged.
"It's not fair for guys that served honorably and didn't desert, that go to college on the GI Bill or get their retirement and other benefits, for them to get it and him to get it as well," said Full, who is no longer in the military.
He also said Bergdahl should serve a lengthy sentence to send a message to anyone who considers deserting in the future.
"The military's obviously a very rough job. ... But everybody else stayed with the oath and did what they signed up to do," Full said. "And as a result of that, some didn't get to come home."
Information for this article was contributed by Helene Cooper of The New York Times; by David Lerman of Bloomberg News; and by Allen G. Breed, Lolita C. Baldor, Donna Cassata, Erica Werner, Deb Riechmann, Sagar Meghani, Emery P. Dalesio and Gene Johnson of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/26/2015