Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the controversial soldier who abandoned his combat outpost in Afghanistan eight years ago and was swiftly captured by the Taliban, was punished Friday with a demotion and a dishonorable discharge. He received no prison time.

The military judge presiding over the trial, Col. Jeffery Nance, had wide leeway to impose anything from no sentence to life imprisonment. Though prosecutors had urged the judge to sentence Bergdahl to 14 years in jail, defense lawyers had argued for no prison time — just a dishonorable or bad-conduct discharge — because of the torture he suffered as a prisoner of war.

The 31-year-old from Hailey, Idaho, clenched his jaw and began to shake as the judge read the sentence, which included a demotion from sergeant to private and a forfeiture of pay of $1,000 a month for 10 months. Two defense attorneys on each side of him wrapped an arm around his back.

Less than an hour and a half after the sentencing, President Trump offered his thoughts on Twitter: “The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.” 

Outside the courthouse, Bergdahl’s lead attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Yale Law School, said Bergdahl was “still absorbing” the ruling, yet it was a “tremendous relief” to get no prison time.

Still, Fidell vowed he would appeal the ruling and continue to attempt to get the case dismissed on the basis of Trump’s inflammatory comments about Bergdahl.

Last year, on the campaign trail, Trump called Bergdahl a “dirty rotten traitor” who deserved to be executed by firing squad or ejected from a plane without a parachute. A few weeks ago, Trump said he could not comment on the case, but then added: “I think people have heard my comments in the past.”

“President Trump’s unprincipled effort to stoke a lynch-mob atmosphere while seeking our nation’s highest office has cast a dark cloud over the case,” Fidell said. “Every American should be offended by his assault on the fair administration of justice and disdain for basic constitutional rights.”

Bergdahl, who was captured in June 2009 within hours of walking off his remote post in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province near the border with Pakistan, pleaded guilty last month to two charges: deserting his post in Afghanistan, which carries a punishment of up to five years, and “misbehavior before the enemy,” a more serious charge that involves endangering the lives of fellow troops and carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment.

During his trial, prosecutors highlighted the hazards to which Bergdahl exposed his comrades who embarked on a massive search and rescue mission in the days and weeks after his disappearance. The judge heard emotional testimony from former Navy SEAL James Hatch, who was hit by enemy fire that shattered his right femur, and the wife of Master Sgt. Mark Allen, who was shot in the head, leaving him unable to speak or walk.