Barack Obama broke a federal law that he signed just six months ago when he authorized the release of five high-ranking Taliban terror targets from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in exchange for the return of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, senior congressional Republicans claimed today.
And the president may also have written a new chapter in the case for his own impeachment, according to a former federal prosecutor who helped bring the 1993 World Trade Center bombers to justice.
'The return of senior terrorists to the Taliban [is] ... a "high crime and misdemeanor",' author Andrew C. McCarthy told MailOnline.
His book 'Faithless Execution: Building the case for Obama's impeachment,' is set to be published Tuesday.
President Barack Obama made Jani and Bob Bergdahl happy by rescuing their son, but may have put his presidency in jeopardy by ignoring Congress when he released five high-value Talican terrorists in exchange
Dereliction of duty? Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (C) made press statements aboard a military aircraft but failed to notify Congress that five Guantanamo Bay detainees would be walking free
Obama 'clearly violated laws which require him to notify Congress thirty days before any transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, and to explain how the threat posed by such terrorists has been substantially mitigated,' House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon of California and Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. JIm Inhofe of Oklahoma said Saturday.
'Our joy at Sergeant Berghdal’s release is tempered by the fact that President Obama chose to ignore the law, not to mention sound policy, to achieve it.'
The administration may have believed it would win a PR victory that would eclipse any legalistic hand-wringing on Capitol Hill.
A White House official told MailOnline on Monday morning that Obama's deputies were caught flatfooted by the intensity of public outrage in some quarters after Bergdahl's rescue by Special Forces.
'Everyone thought this would be a January 1981 moment,' the insider said, referring to the negotiated release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran after 444 days in captivity.
The United States won their freedom by releasing about $8 billion in Iranian assets tat were frozen during the hostage standoff, and immunizing the Iranian government from any lawsuits that might be filed after the crisis was over.
'Reagan negotiated with terrorists in the weeks before he took office,' the official said. 'I don't remember anyone objecting at the time. They just wanted our people home.'
Backlash: Some of the men who served with Bowe Bergdahl are furious that he is being hailed as a hero and claim that he deserted his post
Bergdahl, the last American hostage from the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, was released this weekend in a prisoner exchange that saw five Guantanamo terrorism suspects freed
The law Obama is accused of breaking, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2013, requires Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to 'notify the appropriate committees of Congress ... not later than 30 days before the transfer or release' of detainees from Guantanamo.
Hagel is required to explain why prisoners are being let go, why it's 'in the national security interests of the United States,' and what the administration has done 'to mitigate the risks' that the terror targets will 're-engage' in war against the U.S.
Obama signed the lengthy law in December – it sets budgets and policy for the entire Defense Department – but issued a statement saying that he thought the notification requirement was unfair.
'[I]n certain circumstances,,' he wrote, it 'would violate constitutional separation of powers principles. The executive branch must have the flexibility, among other things, to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers.'
Congress had moved significantly in the president's direction, compared with the previous year's NDAA. That law expressly forbade the administration from spending any money to release enemy combatants to foreign countries from Guantanamo.
Now Obama can make his move, provided he keeps Congress in the loop – which by all accounts he failed to do.
Administration officials were quick to assert that an emergency related to Bergdahl's health made convening a war council impracticable.
'We had reason to be concerned that this was an urgent and acute situation,' National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday on ABC.
'Had we waited and lost him, I don’t think anybody would have forgiven the United States government.'
But Monday morning on CNN, outgoing White House Press Secretary Jay Carney couldn't back up that assertion.
'Now that you have him,' host Chris Cuomo asked, 'have they been able to diagnose anything that substantiated the concerns?'
'Well, you know, I think at this point, Chris,' Carney said, 'we need to allow for Sergeant Bergdahl to recover privately. Out of respect for him and his family. we're not going to get into details of that process. We're just thrilled that he is back.'
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