Bergdahl's Conviction Reinstated by Appeals Court
PHOTO CAPTION: Bowe Bergdahl is pictured in a U.S. Army photo taken before his capture in Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl was held by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network for nearly five years. (Courtesy U.S. Army)
Bowe Bergdahl’s military conviction is back in force after a federal appeals court reversed the 2023 ruling that had wiped out the former Army sergeant’s court-martial judgment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Sept. 1 that a federal district judge did not have the authority to vacate Bergdahl’s court-martial conviction and sentence. The three-judge panel sent the case back with instructions to dismiss Bergdahl’s claims for lack of jurisdiction.
Bergdahl pleaded guilty in 2017 to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after walking away from his post in Afghanistan in June 2009. He was captured by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and remained in captivity for nearly five years before being released in a controversial 2014 prisoner exchange.
His court-martial resulted in a dishonorable discharge, reduction to the lowest enlisted rank and forfeiture of $10,000 in pay and allowances. He received no prison time.
The case took another major turn in 2023 when U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled in Bergdahl’s favor on a claim involving the military judge who presided over his court-martial.
Army Col. Jeffrey Nance had applied for a Justice Department immigration judge position on the same day Bergdahl pleaded guilty in October 2017. Nance submitted as his writing sample an order he had issued in Bergdahl’s case, but the job application was not disclosed to Bergdahl during the court-martial.
Walton concluded the application should have been disclosed. He subsequently voided Nance’s orders and rulings dating from the day the application was submitted, effectively undoing Bergdahl’s conviction and sentence.
The federal government appealed.
The D.C. Circuit did not rule that Bergdahl’s allegations about Nance were meritless. Instead, the appellate judges concluded that a civilian federal district court conducting collateral review does not have the power to directly vacate a court-martial judgment.
That authority belongs to tribunals exercising direct military appellate review, the court said.
The distinction is important: Tuesday’s ruling does not resolve the underlying argument over whether Nance’s undisclosed Justice Department application created a due-process problem. It instead overturns the remedy Bergdahl received in federal district court and orders that case dismissed.
The result leaves the military court judgment against Bergdahl intact.
Bergdahl’s case has remained one of the most controversial episodes of the Afghanistan war. He disappeared from his post in Paktika Province at age 23, saying later that he intended to reach another headquarters to report what he believed were leadership problems within his unit.
Several U.S. service members were wounded during operations searching for him. After Bergdahl was recovered in 2014 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and release triggered years of debate among veterans, military officials and political leaders.
More than 17 years after Bergdahl walked away from his Afghanistan post, the legal fight over the consequences of that decision is still not completely over.
Source: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Associated Press
