A federal judge in Washington ruled in a court decision seen by AFP that the November 2017 military ruling was tainted by a conflict of interest. US soldier Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban after surreptitiously leaving his base near the Pakistani border on June 30, 2009. He had been held captive for five years before being released in a prisoner exchange. Donald Trump, then a 2016 presidential candidate, called him a "rotten dirty traitor" who deserved to be executed.