Posted on 07/27/2023 8:11:37 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
A federal judge has voided the court-martial conviction of former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who left his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was then captured and held by the Taliban for five years.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on Tuesday issued a 63-page ruling granting summary judgment in favor of Bergdahl, who was convicted after pleading guilty in 2017 to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.
Walton argued that Bergdahl was denied a fair trial because the military judge who presided over the court martial, Jeffrey Nance, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an immigration judge, creating the potential for a conflict of interest.
Former President Trump had made repeated public statements insulting Bergdahl, calling him a traitor and suggesting he receive the death penalty. Walton noted in the ruling that although many of these comments were made during Trump’s campaign, he leaned into them after he was elected.
While Walton rejected Bergdahl’s lawyers’ argument that Trump exercised undue command influence in his role as commander in chief, he noted that the comments could lead a reasonable person to question Nance’s impartiality in the case, noting that Trump’s comments reflected his “discernible interest in the outcome” of the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Obama’s very own personal favorite American in uniform.
So stupid.
Our courts have become circuses.
This simply cannot be held in a US Circuit Court.
This has to happen in a Military Court.
I don’t consider him to be an American. I wonder if they will try him again? I will be surprised if they do.
Mixed ruling.
If the judge was as described, a new trial is in order, not the vindication as ordered. Such vindications are generally reserved for prosecutorial misconduct (failure to disclose evidence, etc).
In my opinion, it should have resulted in a new trial.
who was convicted after pleading guilty in 2017 to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.
How does that work?
From Wikipedia:
Courts-martial are conducted under the UCMJ and the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM). If the trial results in a conviction, the case is reviewed by the convening authority – the commanding officer who referred the case for trial by court-martial.[17][18] The power of the convening authority was reduced in 2014.[19][20]Judge Reggie B. Walton is a District Court Judge for the District of Washington, D.C., so he isn't in the above appeals chain.
If the sentence, as approved by the convening authority, includes death, a bad conduct discharge, a dishonorable discharge, dismissal of an officer, or confinement for one year or more, the case is reviewed by an intermediate court.[17] There are four such courts – the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals.
After review by any of these intermediate courts, the next level of appeal is the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF).[17][21] The Supreme Court of the United States has discretion under 28 U.S.C. § 1259 to review cases under the UCMJ on direct appeal where the CAAF has conducted a mandatory review (death penalty and certified cases), granted discretionary review of a petition, or otherwise granted relief.[22] If the CAAF denies a petition for review or a writ appeal, consideration by the Supreme Court may be obtained only through collateral review (e.g., a writ of habeas corpus).[23] Since 2007, several bills have been introduced into Congress to expand the accessibility of service members to the Supreme Court. See also Equal Justice for United States Military Personnel legislation.
Uhmmmm….he plead guilty.
....what this individual did beyond doubt does not matter to the US Judicial System.
Over the centuries, in the world’s armies, many people have been shot/executed for what Bergdahl did but that doesn’t matter to a bunch of snot nosed attorneys reviewing/nitpicking the trial transcript in the comfort of their air conditioned office years later.
Laws are so 2019.
It works like this:
Doesn’t seem right that this traitor can just leapfrog over the requirement for appeal to military appellate courts. The conviction happened over 14 years ago??? Wtf.
Wonder where the money came from to pay the nitpicking attorneys. Bet ya the paying party’s is an LLC run by someone with a last name that begins and ends with an S. SOROS. Its just another campaign interference scam with the objective to falsely blame DJT for “bad treatment” of a tranny.
Agree with your statement, question and the answer.
Watch him get back pay. Ugh.
Beau will always be a coward and traitor regardless of what the court says and does.
Military ping
Ping.
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