Had Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl refused to be the subject of hit podcast ‘Serial,’ he might have avoided his upcoming court-marital.

Before ‘Serial’ announced that the focus of its second season would be Bergdahl’s disappearance and captivity, it actually looked like he would escape punishment. Over the summer, the officer who led the effort to find Bergdahl after he vanished in Afghanistan in 2009 said that jail time was an “inappropriate” punishment for the soldier.

Afghanistan veteran and military justice expert Zacahry Spilman agreed that Bergdahl had already been punished enough by the Taliban

“If we say Bergdahl is to blame for what happened to him — then what?” Spilman said. “Do we as a society just cast this kid out? Any objective observer would say whatever Bergdahl did wrong, he has suffered enough.”

If the wind was blowing in Bergdahl’s favor, why did the Army finally decide to recommend him to face a general court-martial?

Simple: Thanks to Bergdahl’s statements on ‘Serial,’ the prosecution basically has a confession.

Marine Corps lawyer Eric Montalvo said that when you are on trial, talking about your crime on a podcast bent on finding the truth isn’t the brightest idea.

“There are certain basic rules in defense. The first and most important rule is that the client just needs to be quiet,” Montalvo said. “When [Berghdahl] says words to the effect of, ‘I did it because’ – well, you’ve just said you did it. We don’t care why you did it, buddy – the crime is that you did it.”

Bergdahl granted ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ screenwriter Mark Boal full permission to integrate hours of footage into the podcast. In the first episode of ‘Serial’ alone, Bergdahl willingly described how he intended to cause a DUSTWUN (Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown) alert in order to be taken seriously by his unit leader.

“If I were the prosecutor and I heard that, I’d be in no-brainer mode,” Montalvo said. “All I have to do is roll that beautiful footage, and we’re done. He had a plan, and he executed on that plan.”