Sen. Martha McSally on Sunday defended keeping military commanders involved in sexual assault matters and deciding which cases proceed, despite opposition from lawmakers who believe military prosecutors outside the chain of command should instead review sexual assault cases.
“I think a lot of people don’t quite understand the role of our commanders, having been a commander myself,” the Arizona Republican told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz in an interview with “This Week with George Stephanopolous.” “It’s like no other position in civilian life. I mean, we tell people to go take lives, maybe to give their own life. We are responsible for every element of their — everything that they do. So, if you want to solve anything in the military, you have to have commanders more involved.”
McSally, 52, revealed during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in March that she was raped by a superior officer when she was an Air Force pilot. She claimed she did not report the incident because she “didn’t trust the system” and was “ashamed and confused.”
According to Pentagon data released this month, there were approximately 20,500 instances of sexual assault in the military in 2018. The number is an increase from approximately 14,900 instances in 2016.
“The problem is not the ultimate decision whether to prosecute or not by the convening authority, which is usually a colonel or a general,” McSally told ABC. “The problem is that oftentimes, the case along the way is taking too long. It’s like a cancer rotting in the unit while this case goes on.”
But other lawmakers including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., believe that military prosecutors should manage the cases. Gillibrand claims the “status quo is not working” and that Congress must intervene.
“The evidence is clear — we need to pass the Military Justice Improvement Act so that trained military prosecutors can handle these cases moving forward and give survivors confidence in the system,” Gillibrand, a Democratic presidential candidate, said in a statement this month. “We must create an unbiased military justice system worthy of their sacrifice.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, also backs removing the chain of command from reviewing sexual assault cases.
“I respect her opinion, and we have many conversations about this issue,” McSally said of Duckworth. “I just feel very strongly that commanders need to be responsible.”
“If the commander is the perpetrator, you can go above the commander, you can go around the commander,” McSally added. “So, there are many relief valves in this process.”
McSally has pushed for provisions cracking down on sexual assault to be included in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020. The Senate Armed Services Committee incorporated 17 of her provisions in their version of the bill, including giving commanders more responsibility to communicate with victims about the investigation and judicial process.
A committee aide told reporters Thursday there is no provision in the Senate Armed Services version of the NDAA that would strip commanders their authority to decide whether assault cases advance.
The committee aide said that the legislation would request the Pentagon initiate several studies to take “a harder look at alternative systems for preventing sexual assault, what have we done that can work, and what can we do going forward.”
The measure also would make sexual harassment a stand-alone offense in the military.
