According to a new House report, Obama broke the law on the Bergdahl trade by not notifying Congress 30 days in advance of the trade. Even Democrats agree that he broke the law, so I’m sure the media will be all over this. Oh wait, Ted Cruz said something about Donald Trump, so never mind. The media is already preoccupied:
THE HILL – A yearlong investigation by the House Armed Services Committee has concluded that the Obama administration broke the law in swapping five Taliban members for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl — and went out of its way to hide the negotiations as they were happening.
The report said the administration broke a law requiring it to give members of Congress 30 days’ advance notice of any detainee transfers from the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, where the senior Taliban leaders were held.
It also found that it misled reporters and lawmakers about a potential prisoner exchange. Congress was instead notified just hours before the May 2014 transfer took place.
“At the time, there were rumors that on-again, off-again talks about a prisoner exchange, which had broken down several years earlier, might be underway again, but the administration repeatedly suggested to reporters and to Congress that nothing significant was going on,” the report found.
The report also found that the administration kept some defense officials who would normally work on transfers out of the loop. The administration has said it feared a leak of the swap would scuttle the deal and could endanger Bergdahl’s life.
“Our report finds that the Administration clearly broke the law in not notifying Congress of the transfer,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas).
“Leading up to the transfer, DOD officials misled Congress as to the status of negotiations. Pentagon officials best positioned to assess the national security risks were left out of the process, which increases the chances of dangerous consequences from the transfer,” he said.
“It is irresponsible to put these terrorists that much closer to the battlefield to settle a campaign promise and unconscionable to mislead Congress in the process,” he added.
Last year, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office also found that the Obama administration violated the law on the Bergdahl swap.