Somewhere New York Democratic Senator Kristin Gillibrand is smiling…..
The US Military HAD given it’s commanders almost total control over what happend in their commands….
No More….
Case after case of looking the other way or NOT doing the ‘Right Thing’ ending up in the media has a President taking a move to give the military lawyers and investigators the job of handling certain criminal situation’s and they will report to Sec of Defense….Not the military Chain of Command….
President Biden is set to give final approval on Friday to the biggest reshaping in generations of the country’s Uniform Code of Military Justice, stripping commanders of their authority over cases of sexual assault, rape and murder to ensure prosecutions that are independent of the chain of command.
By placing his signature on a far-reaching executive order, Mr. Biden is set to usher in the most significant changes to the modern military legal system since it was created in 1950. The order follows two decades of pressure from lawmakers and advocates of sexual assault victims, who argued that victims in the military were too often denied justice, culminating in a bipartisan law mandating changes.
In a statement, the White House called the changes made by the executive order “a turning point for survivors of gender-based violence in the military” and said they kept promises Mr. Biden made as a candidate.
“He’s made clear that our one truly sacred obligation as a nation is to prepare and equip those we send into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families both while they are deployed and when they return home,” the statement said. “The reforms implemented through today’s executive order do just that.”
The changes had for years been opposed by military commanders. But they were finally embraced by the Pentagon in 2021 and mandated by a law spearheaded by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York. Mr. Biden signed the landmark legislation into law two days after Christmas that year.
The law set up a two-year process for the Defense Department to create a cadre of special prosecutors to handle sexual assault and a handful of other high-profile crimes. The Offices of Special Trial Counsel, as they will be called, will be staffed by experienced military prosecutors who will report to the civilian leaders of the military’s branches….