Federal Judge Throws Out Bowe Bergdahl’s Court-Martial Conviction for Army Desertion

Remember Bowe Bergdahl? He is the former American soldier who abandoned his post in in 2009.

During the search to find him following his disappearance, as many as six soldiers were killed. Obama then ended up trading five suspected terrorists to bring Bergdahl back to the U.S. as a result.

His court-martial conviction has now been thrown out due to a claim of bias against the judge.

FOX News reports:

Bowe Bergdahl court-martial conviction for Army desertion thrown out by federal judge

A former U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after leaving his post while deployed in Afghanistan and was subsequently captured and tortured by the Taliban had his court-martial conviction vacated Tuesday.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington D.C. said that military judge Jeffrey Nance, who presided over the court-martial of Bowe Bergdahl, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an judge, creating a potential conflict of interest.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Army and Justice Department.

Walton noted that former President Trump criticized Bergdahl during the 2016 presidential campaign. Bergdahl’s lawyers argued that the criticism placed command influence on Nance.

Walton rejected that argument, but he said a reasonable person could question the judge’s impartiality under the circumstances. It was not clear if the ruling could possibly result in the reinstatement of rank or change of status for Bargdahl’s dishonorable discharge.

This is outrageous.

The families of the men who died looking for him must be so disgusted and who could blame them?

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Mike LaChance has been covering higher education and politics for Legal Insurrection since 2012. Since 2008 he has contributed work to the Gateway Pundit, Daily Caller, Breitbart, the Center for Security Policy, the Washington Free Beacon, and Ricochet. He has also written for American Lookout, Townhall, and Twitchy.

You can email Mike LaChance here, and read more of Mike LaChance's articles here.

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