Judge vacates desertion conviction for Bowe Bergdahl, former U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan

Bowe Bergdahl, seen before a pretrial hearing in 2016, pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post in Afghanistan and was captured and tortured by the Taliban. A federal judge has vacated the military conviction of Bowe Bergdahl, a former U.S. Army sergeant who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post in Afghanistan and was captured and tortured by the Taliban. The ruling Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington said that Jeffery Nance, the military judge who presided over Bergdahl’s court-martial, had failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an immigration judge, creating a potential conflict of interest. Walton rejected the specific argument surrounding undue command influence, but he said a reasonable person could question the judge’s impartiality under the circumstances.