Lt. Col Jason Amerine: ‘Good Deal of Evidence’ Ransom Was Paid for Sgt. Bergdahl

JOHNSON: “I want you to confirm this. You told me that in the course of your attempts to gain the freedom of these hostages in Afghanistan and Pakistan, you were made aware, to your belief, that the government did pay a ransom and that the ransom money was stolen. And secondly that you believed you were pretty close to potentially having a deal where we would get seven hostages in exchange for one Taliban leader. Instead, we got one hostage in exchange for Five Taliban leaders. Is that kind of in the nutshell -- that information -- is that why you have been retaliated against, or what is the reason?”
AMERINE: “Yes, sir. I think that there are layers of this, as I said, in terms of layers of the bureaucracy. On December 1st, 2014, Representative Hunter submitted a complaint to the IG alleging an illegal or questionable ransom possibly being paid for Sergeant Bergdahl. There was a good deal of evidence that it occurred and a lot of questions as to how it occurred. That complaint implicated both the DOD organization and the FBI. So part of what lit the fuse was the same folks in the FBI that were basically implicated and the DOD IG complaint of 1st December were the ones that later complained to the army that I was sharing sensitive information with Representative Hunter. Another aspect of it on the FBI’s side was just the general frustration with Representative Hunter pushing them hard on civilian hostages and their awareness that I was speaking to Representative Hunter about all of this. I mean, he even set up a meeting between my office and the FBI to try to help them out with some of this. And after the meeting, they responded by contacting Caitlin Coleman’s father and threatening them not to speak to Representative Hunter again, or he would stop getting supported by the FBI. I mean, just atrocious treatment..."