Lawyers for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl asked Donald Trump on Saturday to speak with them "as soon as possible" about comments he has made throughout his presidential campaign.
Bergdahl is facing charges of desertion and misbehavior in a court-martial scheduled for August. According to his lawyers, Trump's comments about the case before large audiences could be relevant to Bergdahl's right to a fair trial. The defense team sent Trump a letter on Saturday, seeking to speak with him to determine if a deposition or testimony as a witness will be necessary.
"It's a first step," attorney Eugene Fidell told BuzzFeed News. "We didn't undertake it lightly."
Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Over the last year, Trump has repeatedly brought up Bergdahl's alleged desertion and the prisoner transfer that resulted in his release from the Taliban.
"So we get a traitor named Bergdahl, a dirty, rotten traitor, who by the way, when he deserted, six young beautiful people were killed trying to find him, right?" Trump said in August.
"In the old days, bing, bong," he added, mimicking a firing squad.
At the time, Fidell said in a statement that Bergdahl deserved to be judged based on facts, rather than slander. He added that Bergdahl is not facing charges of treason.
"This is the lowest kind of demagoguery," he said. "Mr. Trump’s comments are contemptible and un-American. They are a call for mob justice."
In December, Fidell again called for an end to Trump's comments
"We again ask that Donald Trump cease his prejudicial months-long campaign of defamation against our client," he said in a statement.
In January, Trump reminded an audience of the case.
"So we get this dirty, rotten, no-good traitor who 20 years ago would have been shot, who 40 years ago, they would have done it in the first hour, and who now maybe nothing's going to happen," Trump said.
On Saturday, as Bergdahl's team was sending the letter, Trump again called him a "rotten traitor" and his return to the U.S. a terrible deal.
'We get Bergdahl-- we get a dirty rotten traitor... and they get five of the biggest killers that they've been coveting," Trump said.
