Dismissal of ex-US soldier Bergdahl’s conviction was invalid, court rules

A federal judge had no authority to overturn former US Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl’s military conviction for deserting his post in Afghanistan before Taliban-allied forces captured him and held him for nearly five years, an appeals court has ruled.

A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday ordered the dismissal of Bergdahl’s claims in district court. The ruling essentially reinstates the ex-soldier’s conviction.

The panel said District Judge Reggie Walton, sitting in Washington, DC, lacked the jurisdiction to vacate Bergdahl’s court-martial conviction and sentence in 2023.

Bergdahl had sued in civilian court in 2021, arguing that the military punishment violated his Fifth Amendment due-process rights. Walton ruled that military judge Jeffrey Nance created a potential conflict of interest by failing to disclose his application for a position as an immigration judge in the US Department of Justice.

But the appeals court concluded that only a court of appeals within the military justice system has the authority to overturn a court-martial judgement.

“Because Bergdahl seeks to have his court-martial conviction declared expunged and without effect due to violations of the Constitution and military rules, and its consequences reversed, he effectively asked the District Court to vacate the military judgment,” Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins wrote. “However, the authority to vacate a court-martial judgment belongs to tribunals exercising direct appellate review, not district courts conducting collateral review.”

Bergdahl, then a 23-year-old soldier from Hailey, Idaho, was stationed in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province in June 2009 when he left his post without permission . His defence team said he left to hike to headquarters to complain about what he viewed as poor leadership in his unit.

Bergdahl was captured by forces from the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network and repeatedly tortured before his release from captivity in 2014 as part of a prisoner swap under then-President Barack Obama.