US military standards to investigate claims of sexual violence will remain unchanged, a senior official told reporters on Thursday, for launching a separate review of all departments of how discrimination claims were handled in general.
The promise also came when the Department of Defense faced the potential loss of personnel available to process cases of sexual violence due to Trump’s administrative efforts to cut staff throughout the government.
“In the end, the evidence standard remains the same regarding complaints of sexual harassment,” said Dr. Nathan Galbreath, Director of the Office of Prevention and Response of Sexual Violence.
“For this reason, all complaints are reviewed, evidence is analyzed, and a legal officer often argues whether action can be taken or not,” Galbreath told reporters in a briefing call to track cases of sexual violence in the military.
Last week, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asked the Secretary of the Service to review the same opportunity program to ensure that the complaints of discrimination were not “armed” by dissatisfied employees.
The military tracks complaints of sexual harassment through the same opportunity personnel.
In April 23’s instructions, Hegseth specifically asked the secretary to ensure “unfounded complaints by evidence that can be followed up and credible rejected on time.” He called it “No more walking on Eggshells Policy.”
“Too often, in the Department of Defense, there are complaints that make that for certain reasons that cannot be verified that the career of the final person,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X.
“Some people use these programs with bad faith to reply to superiors or peers. I hear that all the time,” he said about complaints of general discrimination.
When it comes to sexual violence, unfounded claims are very rare. According to the military, 1% of cases involved evidence that both freeing people accused or showing crime did not occur.
When asked whether Hegseth’s latest mandate would increase the evidence standard for victims of sexual violence, Galbreath said “No.”
President Donald Trump also asked Pentagon to review regulations that could potentially burden and streamline operations, efforts that generate offers to employees for early retirement and employ freezing throughout the department.
Galbreath and other officials told reporters on Thursday that they were not sure exactly how the prevention and response programs for military sexual harassment would be affected first.
When the recruitment freezing recently began to take effect, there were around 300 job prevention of sexual violence, said Dr. Andra Tharp, Director of the Climate Office of Command and Integration of Welfare of the Ministry of Defense.
“We really try to get a total impact from that,” he said.
Tharp said he encouraged services to seek exceptions to the coordinator of the response of sexual violence and the victim’s advocate.
The defense department logo was seen on the wall in the press briefing room in Pentagon, 29 October 2024, in Washington.
Kevin Wolf/AP
Galbreath said that 100% of victims’ services are still available now and that the coordinator of the response of sexual violence and supporters of victims is placed in every military installation around the world.
The amount of sexual violence reported throughout the military fell almost 4% last year, according to data released by the department.
This report is the first full year account since Pentagon placed a new prosecution procedure that empowered independent lawyers, not military commanders. The change was requested by members of parliament who said it was not enough to be done to encourage personnel to report the attack.
“Even though we want to see the number of reports increased, I am still very satisfied that our military members know that they can advance,” and “get the help they need to recover,” Galbreath said.