Dianne Feinstein Unconvinced Taliban Threat To Kill Bowe Bergdahl Was 'Credible'

The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday she isn’t buying the Obama administration’s contention that there was a “credible threat” that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl would be killed if news of the details of the prisoner swap were leaked.

“I don’t think there was a credible threat,” U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” on Friday for a segment scheduled to air over the weekend, according to Bloomberg. “I have no information that there was.”

The Associated Press reported Thursday that senators were briefed that the administration believed the Taliban threatened to kill Bergdahl if news leaked that he would be released in exchange for five high-level Guantanamo Bay detainees. The administration said the threat was the reason Obama didn’t give Congress the required 30 days’ notification for such a swap.

Feinstein is among the congressional leaders who slammed the administration for the lack of notice of the exchange, which took place Saturday.

Aside from the threat, the administration cited video showing that Bergdahl’s health was deteriorating in defending the expedited swap. Feinstein said she couldn’t tell whether the information on Bergdahl’s health justified the lack of notification to Congress.

“There’s no question he was debilitated. There was no question he was under stress -- blinking rapidly, probably held in dark surroundings for a long period of time,” she told Bloomberg. “But he’ll receive very good care and recover, and I think that’s what’s important.”