The first Obama administration official to address desertion charges filed against U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said Wednesday night that trading five high-value Taliban leaders for his safe return was 'absolutely' the right thing to do. 'Was it worth it? Absolutely,' said Jen Psaki, the chief spokeswoman at the State Department. 'We have a commitment to our men and women serving overseas – or serving in our military – defending our national security every day, that we're going to do everything we can to bring them home if we can, and that's what we did in this case.' On Thursday aboard Air Force One, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz backed her up, saying that President Barack Obama 'will not allow a member of the United States armed forces to be left behind.' 'Was it worth it? Absolutely,' said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki of the Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap . Bergdahl, shown before his handover to US troops in May 2014, was ransomed for five high-level Taliban leaders in a White House maneuver that has drawn criticism from members of Congress . Psaki spoke to Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly. She is scheduled to take over the job of White House communications director next month from Jen Palmieri, who will transition to a role with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. 'You know, this is a commitment we've made, we've long made, we've made for decades,' said Psaki. Bringing Bergdahl home at any cost 'was an important message for this president to deliver to the American people,' Schultz added Thursday, 'but also to people all around the world, that the United States and their commander-in-chief stands squarely behind our men and women in uniform – and with the commitment we have made to not leave them behind.' He wouldn't, however, comment on the criminal charges facing Bergdahl. 'There's an ongoing military justice process that's underway and I don't want to say anything that might interfere with that investigation, or even leave anyone with the appearance of some sort of interference,' Schultz told reporters. 'But that is a process that will run its course as it should.' The Obama administration's ransom deal has come under new fire as Bergdahl's criminal charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice were read yesterday at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, a California Republican, said the charges of desertion and 'misbehavior before the enemy' were 'the exclamation point on the bad deal the Obama administration cut to free five terrorist killers in its rush to empty the prison at Guantanamo Bay.' 'TALIBAN FIVE': The terror leaders traded for Bergdahl were (top, from left): Abdul Haq Wasiq, Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mohammad Nabi Omari; and (bottom from left): Mohammad A Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori . Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said President Barack Obama 'endangered our national security and broke the law when he chose to negotiate with terrorists and release hardened enemy combatants from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bergdahl – who many believed at the time was a deserter.' And Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe wrote in a scathing op-ed for Time magazine asking: 'Who will be held accountable for breaking the law regarding the release of prisoners from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? Bowe Bergdahl will face charges under articles 85 and 99 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice . 'Desertion with Intent to Shirk Important or Hazardous Duty': . Article 85 charges a soldier with desertion if he 'quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service.' It can carry a death sentence but the military won't seek that option in the Bergdahl case . MAXIMUM SENTENCE: 5 years in a military prison plus reduction in rank, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay . 'Misbehavior Before the Enemy by Endangering the Safety of a Command, Unit or Place': . Article 99 charges a servicemember with running away from a fighting enemy, throwing down his weapons, abandoning his platoon or other fighting unit, or otherwise purposely failing 'to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy.' MAXIMUM SENTENCE: life in a military prison plus reduction in rank, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay . 'In executing the transfer of five detainees from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Bergdahl, the president violated a law that requires him to notify Congress 30 days before any transfer of terrorists from the detention facility,' Inhofe wrote, 'and to explain how the threat posed by the terrorists has been substantially mitigated.' 'His failure to adhere to a law he signed places our nation’s security at great risk for the foreseeable future.' Obama himself has not addressed the Bergdahl issue since his charges were read on Wednesday. But he insisted in a June 2014 press conference that he had made the right decision. 'I make absolutely no apologies for making sure we get back a young man to his parents,' the president said then, 'and that the American people understand that this is somebody's child and that we don't condition whether or not we make the effort to try to get them back.' Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban after leaving his post in June 2009 and held by members of the Haqqani network, an insurgent group tied to the Taliban that operates both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Before disappearing, Bergdahl had expressed misgivings about the U.S. role in the war – as well as his own. Last May 31, Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces in Afghanistan as part of an exchange for five Taliban commanders who were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The exchange set off a debate over whether the U.S. should have released the five Taliban members. Little is known about what the five have been doing in Qatar, where they are being monitored by the government. Some lawmakers have predicted that the five would return to the battlefield, and at least two have said they intend to. Bergdahl was charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy; the first carries up to five years in prison, the latter up to life. A conviction on either could strip him of his rank and all pay and earn him a dishonorable discharge. The 'misbehavior' charge is rare and typically reserved for shameful or cowardly conduct, said Daniel Conway, a military defense lawyer and the author of a forthcoming book on military crimes. Bergdahl, 28, won't face a death sentence, although the punishment is an option for prosecutors to pursue against deserters in wartime. But his case does raise the question of whether military prosecutors will lock away for life a man the U.S. gave up five imprisoned Taliban commanders to bring home. US Army Col. Daniel King addressed the news media about charges against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at Fort Bragg, NC on Wednesday, March 25, 2015, reading a one-page statement but not taking any questions . A death penalty case was likely a non-starter after all that had to be sacrificed to bring him home,  Jeffrey K. Walker, a St. John's University law professor, retired Air Force officer and former military lawyer told the Associated Press. President Obama said less than a week after he traded fiveTaliban fighters for Bowe Bergdahl that he would make 'no apologies' for the decision . In fact, his defense attorney might successfully argue he deserves leniency after years as a prisoner. 'That's pretty good mitigation evidence,' Walker said. 'It wouldn't surprise me at all if what he ended up with was a dishonorable discharge and no jail time.' Bergdahl's 'reintegration' when he returned to Fort Sam Houston in Texas suggests how difficult his life was in captivity. He was on a bland diet at first and did not initially have access to a television. He was gradually allowed to venture off the base to go to grocery stores, restaurants and shopping centers. He even had to readjust to the idea that he could control aspects of his life as simple as choosing when to eat, and what. However, the charges underscore the military's position that the hardship of his captivity doesn't outweigh the ramifications of leaving his post. Some members of his former unit have called for serious punishment, saying others risked their lives searching for him. 'The military's obviously a very rough job. ... But everybody else stayed with the oath and did what they signed up to do. And as a result of that, some didn't get to come home,' said Cody Full, 26, who served in Bergdahl's platoon. He said Bergdahl should be stripped of his pay and benefits and be dishonorably discharged . Michael Waddington, a military defense lawyer not involved with Bergdahl's case, said he expected a long prison sentence and wondered why the U.S. bothered to bring him back. 'The administration traded a known Taliban for this guy only to bring him back and put him in jail,' Waddington said. 'That seems to me like a waste of resources.' In an interview Wednesday with MSNBC, Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, claimed the major general who conducted an investigation of the case before the charges were brought 'never mentioned' the misbehavior charge 'and I don't think he had it in mind, and I don't frankly know how it got on the charge sheet.' 'This is a matter that I anticipate we'll contest,' he said. Fidell said the desertion charge and the misbehavior charge 'are simply two ways of describing the same conduct, and I think it's unfortunate that someone got creative in drafting the charge sheet and figured out two ways to charge the same thing.' Conway said he wouldn't expect the Army to seek much prison time for Bergdahl because of his time as a Taliban captive, but officials needed to prosecute the case because a conviction means Bergdahl cannot collect special compensation as a prisoner of war. 'He did spend X number of years as a prisoner of the Taliban — that certainly mitigates the need for him to be locked up,' Conway said. 'But as a political matter, I don't think we can stomach the possibility that he deserted his post and could receive $300,000 in back pay for it.'
'Was it worth it? Absolutely,' said Jen Psaki, the chief spokeswoman at the State Department . Psaki will become the White House's communications director next month when the incumbent flack joins Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign . 'The commander in chief will not allow a member of the United States armed forces to be left behind,' a White House spokesman added . Republicans hurled we-told-you-sos at the White House after Bergdahl was charged with desertion and 'misbehavior before the enemy'
The Obama administration traded five high-value Taliban fighters for his safe return last year .