Attorney Gloria Allred on Thursday accused the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee of downplaying the scope of the nude-photo-sharing scandal that recently rocked the Marines.
The attorney said that following the scandal, she hand-delivered a letter to the office of Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), asking that the committee hold a hearing and invite the victims of the scandal to testify.
Allred spoke Thursday alongside two clients, both of whom are alleged victims of the scandal in which Marines allegedly shared nude pictures of female marines without their consent.
{mosads}Allred said that she received a response to the letter, stating that the hearing would include a panel of individuals whose cases have been “fully investigated and adjudicated.”
“His response, in my opinion, is an attempt to hide from the public the true facts about how the system has failed to protect female Marines,” she argued.
“For example, Rep. Thornberry states that his committee will only be hearing from a survivor panel comprised of individuals whose cases have been fully investigated and adjudicated. But I say, what about the victims who filed a report and whose cases were not investigated at all, or whose cases were not properly investigated and were, therefore, never adjudicated?” she said.
Allred further criticized the committee, accusing the lawmakers of only wanting to hear “success stories.”
“Why does the committee only want to hear the success stories? Who are they really trying to protect, and why do they not want to hear the truth from any survivor brave enough to testify?” she asked.
A GOP aide said efforts were underway on a panel for next week.
“We hope to have a victim panel as part of next week’s hearing and we are working with the minority to make that happen,” said Claude Chafin, a spokesperson for the committee’s GOP majority, the Washington Examiner reported.
The Examiner noted that Thornberry, in his response to Allred, called the case “disturbing” and said all troops should be treated with “dignity and respect.”