There is a lot about the Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl case that is frustrating and face palm-worthy. Close to the top of the list, right under “alleged desertion and light treason,” is the fact that in order to free Bergdahl from his five-year imprisonment with the Taliban, the United States had to trade five Taliban militants imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.

A new congressional report that dug into the Bergdahl case has found that it wasn’t actually necessary to trade those prisoners for Bergdahl’s safety. According to the Daily Beast, the deal could have been a ploy to thin Gitmo’s prisoner population.

“The five-for-one swap was the starting point for what’s become the administration’s backdoor effort to thin out the inmate population at Gitmo,” Joe Kasper, a spokesperson for Rep. Duncan Hunter, told The Daily Beast. Hunter, a member of the Armed Services Committee, has been a leading critic of the administration’s hostage recovery efforts and is particularly critical of the Bergdahl exchange.

“What we’ve always known—and hopefully this report provides the right validation—is that the five-for-one swap was a less than half-baked idea that was favored by the State Department and the rest of the administration to the detriment of other, more acceptable and viable options,” Kasper said, referring to attempts to rescue Bergdahl as well as other American hostages held along the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Decorated Green Beret Lt. Col. Jason Amerine attempted to negotiate the release for Bergdahl and several other American hostages, including a married couple abducted in 2012, for only a single Afghan drug dealer serving time in California. In June, Amerine testified that the Pentagon discarded his plan in order to trade five prisoners for only Bergdahl’s release.

Meanwhile the married couple, Caitlin Coleman and Joshua Boyle, are still in Taliban custody, along with their child who was born during their imprisonment.

The report also revealed that allegations that the Pentagon paid a ransom for Bergdahl’s release are false. The government never made any random payments, but it did bribe some individuals for information regarding Bergdahl’s location and state of health.

The Daily Beast rightfully calls this situation a FUBAR–f**ked up beyond all reason.