STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Bowe Bergdahl, a former U.S. Army soldier who grew up in Hailey, has had his military conviction vacated or set aside as if it had never happened.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said in a 63-page opinion that Jeffrey Nance, the military judge who presided over Bergdahl’s court-martial, did not disclose that he had applied for a job as an immigration judge, creating a potential conflict of interest.
Walton also noted that President Donald Trump had strongly criticized Bergdahl during his 2016 presidential campaign, calling him a “dirty rotten traitor” and saying that he should be executed. It was possible, he said, that his comments influenced Nance.
Bergdahl’s attorney Eugene Fidell said at the time that President Trump’s effort to “stoke a lynch-mob atmosphere” had cast a dark cloud over the case.
Bergdahl made national headlines after he left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. He was captured and tortured, beaten with rubber hoses, rifle butts and copper wires by the Taliban. He was held in a small cage for four years after several escape attempts, including a nine-day stint in which he survived by eating grass.
He was returned to the United States in 2014 in a prison swap for five Taliban leaders being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion at his 2017 court martial held at Fort Bragg, N.C., but was given no time because of the torture he suffered. Starvation, one Army doctor testified, had caused permanent nerve damage known as neuropathy in his legs, which can make walking difficult and painful.
Bergdahl was dishonorably discharged and ordered to forfeit $10,000 in pay.
Bergdahl maintained that he walked away from his post to bring attention to problems in his army unit. A psychiatrist tested that he suffered from schizotypal personality disorder, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and cognitive deficits, which likely played a role in his decision to abandon his post.
Authorities said he provided valuable intelligence about his Taliban captors upon his release.