Bergdahl attorney lashes out at Trump

Bergdahl attorney lashes out at Trump

WASHINGTON

The attorney for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl lashed out Tuesday at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and congressional committees for peddling misinformation that he says is impeding his client’s right to a fair trial.

A court-martial is the next step in the military’s case against Bergdahl, who was held captive by the Taliban for five years and freed in a controversial exchange for five Taliban detainees held in Guantanamo Bay.

Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell, told The Associated Press in an interview that Trump stated more recently in Las Vegas, Nev., that five soldiers were killed trying to find Bergdahl. The Pentagon has said no one died in the searches.

Trump also has pledged to review the case if Bergdahl is not appropriately punished, Fidell said.

“I have no idea what Mr. Trump has in mind, and I don’t think Mr. Trump has any idea of what he has in mind,” he said. “I think he’s a big faker.”

Fogle appealing child-porn sentence

INDIANAPOLIS

Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle is appealing the more than 15-year prison sentence he received for possessing child pornography and having sex with underage prostitutes, which was longer than the maximum term prosecutors agreed to pursue as part of his plea deal.

Attorney Ron Elberger said Tuesday that he’s appealing Fogle’s sentence, but he declined to discuss it in detail. He filed the notice of appeal in federal court in Indianapolis on Monday.

Kerry accepts Russian stance on Syrian president

MOSCOW

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday accepted Russia’s long-standing demand that President Bashar Assad’s future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end Syria’s civil war.

“The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change,” Kerry told reporters in the Russian capital after meeting President Vladimir Putin. A major international conference on Syria would take place later this week in New York, Kerry announced.

Kerry reiterated the U.S. position that Assad, accused by the West of massive human-rights violations and chemical-weapons attacks, won’t be able to steer Syria out of more than four years of conflict.

Turkey detains suspected bomber

ANKARA, Turkey

An Islamic State militant suspected of planning a suicide attack against the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul has been detained in Turkey, a government official said Tuesday.

The Syrian man was detained “in the past few days” at a bus station in the city of Kahramanmaras, close to the border with Syria, the official told The Associated Press. A court in Kahramanmaras ordered him jailed pending trial after questioning by anti-terror police. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

Last week, the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul warned U.S. citizens to avoid the building because of information about a security threat and suspended consular services for a day.

Associated Press