The US Army standards. UU. To investigate the reports of sexual assault and complaints of sexual harassment will remain unchanged, a senior official told journalists on Thursday, since the Pentagon launches a separate review of the entire department on how discrimination claims are managed in general.
The promise also occurs when the Department of Defense faces a potential loss of available personnel to process cases of sexual aggression due to the efforts of the Trump administration to cut personnel throughout the government.
“At the end of the day, the test standard remains the same regarding any sexual harassment complaint,” said Dr. Nathan Galbreath, director of the Office of Prevention and Response of Sexual Aggression.
“To that end, all complaints are reviewed, the evidence is analyzed and a legal officer often believes if measures can be taken,” Galbreath told journalists in an informative call on the monitoring of cases of sexual aggression in the army.
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked the service secretaries to review equal opportunities programs to ensure that discrimination complaints were not being “armed” by discontent employees.
The military tracks sexual harassment complaints through his equal opportunities personnel.
In its directive of April 23, Hegseth specifically requested the secretaries that guarantee discrimination “complaints that are not attached to the processable and credible evidence are dismissed in a timely manner.” He called him “no more walking on the policy of eggshells.”
“Too often, in the Department of Defense, there are complaints that for certain reasons that cannot be verified to end people’s careers,” Hegseth said in a video posted in X.
“Some people use these bad faith programs to retaliate against superiors or colleagues. I hear that all the time,” he said about employee discrimination complaints.
Galbreath and other officials said that the HEGsetH directive will not affect the way in which sexual assault reports or sexual harassment complaints are handled.
Even so, Hegesh’s directive shook defenders who say they are concerned that the secretary’s orders discourage people when thinking about presenting themselves with misconduct, either their sexual harassment or racial discrimination.
“This new policy sends a marked and chilling message: it reports misconduct at its own risk,” wrote Josh Connolly, senior vice president of Protect Our Defenders, a defense group aimed at ending sexual assault in the army.
When asked if Hegesh’s last mandate will raise the test standard for victims of sexual assault, Galbreath said “No”.
When it comes to sexual assault, unfounded reports are extraordinarily rare. According to the army, 1% of cases involve evidence that exempts the accused person or shows that the crime did not occur.
President Donald Trump also asked the Pentagon to review the regulations that are potentially onerous and rationalize operations, an effort that resulted in offers to employees for early retirement, as well as the hiring of freezing throughout the department.
Galbreath and other officials told journalists on Thursday that they are not sure of how the military’s prevention and response program will be affected even when it comes to personnel levels.
When a recent freezing of hiring entered into force, there were about 300 work of prevention of sexual aggression in suspension, said Dr. Andra Tharp, director of the Office of Command and Integration of Welfare of the Department of Defense.
“We are really trying to reduce arms the total impacts of that,” he said.
Galbreath said that he is encouraging services to seek hiring exemptions for coordinators to respond to sexual aggression and the defenders of the victims.
The Logo of the Department of Defense is seen in the wall in the press room of the press in the Pentagon, on October 29, 2024, in Washington.
Kevin Wolf/AP
He said that 100% of victims’ services remain available now and that the coordinators for the response to sexual aggression and the defenders of the victims are parked in all military facilities worldwide.
The number of sexual assaults reported throughout the army fell almost 4% last year, according to data published by the department.
The report is the first account of the whole year since the Pentagon established new prosecution procedures that enhance independent lawyers, instead of military commanders. The legislators asked for the changes they said that the staff was not being done enough to inform the assault.
“Although we would like to see that the amount of reports increase, I am still very satisfied that our military members know that they can present” and “get the help they need to recover,” said Galbreath.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed an appointment. The updated version correctly attributes Dr. Nathan Galbreath the appointment of encouraging services to seek hiring exemptions for coordinators for sexual assault and victims’ defenders.
