Former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has secured a complete legal victory in his quest to vacate his conviction after pleading guilty to desertion.
Bergdahl's 2009 decision to abandon his post led to his capture by the Taliban and the loss of six U.S. soldiers who died searching for him.
Task & Purpose has more on the dramatic legal reversal:
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton found that Bergdahl was denied a fair trial because the military judge overseeing his case, then-Col. Jeffrey Nance, did not disclose he was applying for a civilian position at the Justice Department while presiding over the court-martial.
“Furthermore, the Court will vacate all orders and rulings issued by the military judge who presided over the plaintiff's court-martial as of October 16, 2017, and thereafter — which was the date when that military judge submitted his employment application for an immigration judge position,” Walton wrote, adding that, “Consequently, the judgment of the military judge regarding the plaintiff's [Bergdahl's] court-martial is rendered void.”
October 16, 2017, was the date Bergdahl entered a guilty plea for desertion. It was also the day Nance submitted an application to the Justice Department for a position as an immigration judge. It was also one day before Nance — when questioned about the potential of impartiality in the case — referred to himself as a “terminal colonel” who was “not going anywhere but the retirement pastures,” according to court documents.
“Military judges, like all other judges, have to disclose if there is a basis for their disqualification,” Eugene Fidell, one of the lawyers representing Bergdahl, said.
Bergdahl spent years exhausting his appeals in military courts before turning to the civilian judicial system. Judge Walton initially ruled in favor of the motion to dismiss Bergdahl's case in March 2023.
However, Walton rejected Bergdahl's claims that comments by former President Donald Trump and former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) influenced his case.
Then-candidate Trump called Bergdahl a “dirty rotten traitor” at rallies while Sen. McCain threatened congressional hearings if Bergdahl was acquitted.
After five years in Taliban custody, the U.S. government agreed to a 2014 prisoner swap of five Taliban leaders in exchange for Bergdahl.
The detainees included Mohammad Fazl, the Taliban's deputy minister of defense, Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban minister of interior affairs, and Norullah Noori, a senior military commander wanted by the U.N. for possible war crimes.
Sen. McCain and U.S. diplomat James Franklin Jeffrey described the Taliban Five, as the detainees came to be known, as “the hardest of the hard-core.”
Official records deemed them a “high” risk to the United States and recommended “continued detention.”
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Ya laws what laws treaon is ok?? and the Judge is not removed why?
…because the government behaved corruptly. Did you miss that part of the article?
It would seem someone has their head up their derriere.
…yes…at the time it was the corrupt government….now it is obvious that several individuals were up very corrupt buttocks along the way…eh?
This judge.
..once again…the government shows it’s corruption…
Just what the hell does a military prosecutor seeking a private sector position while serving in a court martial have to with first, Bergdahl was a deserter plain and simple. He admitted it. The real travesty in this case was the number of Bergdahl’s comrades in arms that died trying to find this cowardly SOB. This ruling definitely needs to be investigated much deeper.
He should have been hung!
The judge is using a phony excuse to excuse the traitor. Bergdahl
Both Judge Reggie Walton and Bergdahl are traitors.
Then why not retry the traitor, with the family’s of the 6 soldiers telling this traitor why he should be hung until dead.
Only under an American hating administration along with a puppet judicial system which is loyal to a politically corrupt democrat party who places most these anti American judgments can this happen. Small wonder why russia, china , s. korea and dictators throughout central & south America laugh at us while continuing to fleece American taxpayers. The biggest laugh at Americans is that very few to none of these elite officials and the wealthy elite in hollywood will ever pay an equal share as the average American.
He should have gotten the firing squad. Then all of this wasted time and money would not have happened.