Senators ask Obama to investigate whether Pentagon misled Congress

A bipartisan pair of senators is calling on President Obama to investigate allegations that the Pentagon misled Congress during testimony on sexual assault cases.

“We question whether the Pentagon has accorded this issue the importance it deserves, and our concerns are reinforced by a newly released report by the victims’ advocacy organization Protect Our Defenders, which maintains that the U.S. Department of Defense misled members of Congress during a recent congressional debate over sexual assault in the military, in a follow-up report by the Associated Press,” Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to Obama on Tuesday.

{mosads}“Due to the very serious nature of these allegations, we request that you direct an independent investigation into this matter,” they added.

The report from Protect Our Defenders, released Monday, said a Pentagon official’s statement that civilian prosecutors refused to prosecute 93 cases of sexual assault that were later pursued by military commanders was misleading. The group came to that conclusion after analyzing documents on 81 of the 93 cases.

In July 2013, then-Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. James Winnefeld made the comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee while arguing against a bill that would have taken military sexual assault cases outside the chain of command and given the cases to independent military prosecutors.

The bill, which was introduced by Gillibrand, was blocked in the Senate last summer.

Protect Our Defenders also gave the documents to The Associated Press, which did its own analysis.

The AP investigation found that the documents described civilian authorities’ actions inaccurately or omitted them altogether.

“In case after case, the AP revealed facts that challenge the Pentagon’s assertion that civilian prosecuting authorities are either electing not to pursue justice, or are incompetently pursuing justice, in cases of military sexual assault,” Grassley and Gillibrand wrote.

In separate comments, Gillibrand said she has no doubt the testimony helped kill her bill.

“Deeply troubled by report that finds @DeptofDefense misled Congress in testimony on sexual assault reform,” she tweeted Monday. “I have no doubt that @DeptofDefense’s misleading testimony impacted Senators’ positions on reforming how the military handles sexual assault.”