Time “served” and an “other than honorable” discharge?
AND he will bash Trump.
From today:
“As the hearing got underway, an Army judge also said he was still considering a motion by the defense to dismiss the case. The defense has argued that President Trump’s comments about Bergdahl prevent Bergdahl from having a fair sentencing hearing.”
Neither of which are authorized punishments which can be adjudged by a court-martial.
Now, that's not saying that it couldn't be the equivalent of "time served". If the military judge sentences the accused to a period of confinement that is less than the total time for which he was serving pretrial confinement, then that would be the equivalent. However, I don't believe that the accused in this case served very much (or any) actual pretrial confinement. The defense, as I understand it, is trying to convince the judge that the time that he was "captured" by the Taliban should count as pretrial confinement. I don't believe that that will be successful due to the pleading of the accused that he was guilty of desertion and misbehavior in the face of the enemy.
Also, the only two discharges that are authorized for the sentencing of an accused in a general court-martial are a "bad conduct discharge" or a "dishonorable discharge". Anything else are administrative separations only and may not be adjudged by the military judge. Now, again, that's what he could end up with, but that would be the doing of the Convening Authority .. the command authority who convened the court-martial. In his post-trial action, I believe that he could order any bad conduct or dishonorable discharge not to take effect but could, rather, impose an administrative separation on the accused in his action. I've never actually seen it done, except for those cases where a post-trial Chapter 10 administrative action (which is basically a "for the good of the Service" type of separation) was approved, but I don't see that happening in this type of case either.
WARNING - I am not a lawyer and do not play one on TV. However, I have been a court stenographer for over 39 years and probably have been involved in more courts-martial than any lawyer or military judge.