Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed his commitment to tackling sexual assault and harassment in the military on Thursday but refused to take a position on removing prosecution decisions from the chain of command until the work of an independent commission is complete in two months.
Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said some 20,000 service members were sexually assaulted last year, about 1% of the force, according to one survey. Currently, commanders decide if there is enough evidence to send a case to trial, or a court-martial in the military justice system. Legislation introduced by New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand calls for the authority to prosecute serious crimes to be taken away from military commanders and given to military lawyers. An independent review commission on sexual assault and harassment ordered by Austin has two months left to present its recommendations.
Standing aside Austin at the Pentagon Thursday, Milley said he was “very open” to the possibility of removing investigations from the chain of command.
“We haven’t moved the needle. That’s the bottom line. We haven’t resolved this issue,” he said.
DOD STARTS 90-DAY SEXUAL ASSAULT REVIEW WITH NO ACTIVE-DUTY PANEL MEMBERS
Milley made headlines on Sunday when he broke from a past position that investigations must stay within the military chain of command.
“My mind is completely open to all kinds of opportunities to change here,” he said. “We, the chain of command, the generals, the colonels, the captains, and so on, we have lost the trust and confidence of those subordinates in our ability to deal with sexual assault.”
Pressed by journalists, Austin refused to take a position, saying that he would wait for the results of the commission charged with looking at issues ranging from leadership and readiness to climate and support to victims.
“I think we have to let the review commission do its work,” he said. “The accountability piece of it is a very important piece, but it’s not the only piece.”
Lynn Rosenthal, the former White House adviser on violence against women, leads the commission that began its work on March 25. The panel includes 13 experts and service members, though none are on active duty.
Following the first commission meeting, Rosenthal said she was interested in exploring Gillibrand’s proposal to remove sexual assault investigation decisions from the chain of command. By April 29, Gillibrand and a host of bipartisan members of Congress, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, backed her legislation calling for military justice reform.
The Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act would move the decision to prosecute from the chain of command to independent military prosecutors.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Austin admitted that it was time for the department to take a new direction in combating the sexual assault and harassment problem.
“We’ve done things a certain way for a while,” he said. “We really need to kind of broaden our horizons and begin to look at things differently and be willing to take different paths to improve things.”
