Letter to Ashton B. Carter, Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense - DOD Military Sexual Assault Cases

Letter

Dear Secretary Carter,

We are writing to express our concerns regarding allegations that the U.S. Department of Defense misled Congress during our recent debates over sexual assault in the military.

A newly released report by the victims' advocacy organization Protect Our Defenders and a follow-up investigation by the Associated Press (AP), both attached, maintain that the Department provided us and our colleagues with faulty statistics in order to impact our policy debates over sexual assault in the military

Specifically at issue is the testimony of Admiral James Winnefeld, Jr., then Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before the Senate Armed Services Committee as well as further correspondence sent by Admiral Winnefeld to Senators Levin and Gillibrand. Admiral Winnefeld claimed that military commanders were taking sexual assault cases that civilian authorities declined to take and used as examples 93 cases to demonstrate this claim.

Both Protect Our Defenders and the AP found that these claims were inaccurate and misleading -- that local law enforcement worked with the military to determine who could best handle the cases; that many of the cases were not tried for sexual assault and that there was no evidence that commanders were tougher than civilian or military prosecutors.

We are deeply disturbed by the allegations in the two reports that the Department deliberately misled members as they were debating an issue of policy and oversight.

We are sure that you share our concerns and request a meeting with you to discuss these allegations as soon as possible.