(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. military’s standards for investigating sexual assault claims will remain unchanged, a senior official told reporters on Thursday, as it launches a separate department-wide review into how discrimination claims are handled in general.
The promise also comes as the Defense Department faces a potential loss of personnel available to process sexual assault cases due to efforts by the Trump administration to trim staff across government.
“At the end of the day, the standard of proof remains the same with regard to any sexual harassment complaint,” said Dr. Nathan Galbreath, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.
“To that end, all complaints are reviewed, the evidence is analyzed, and a legal officer often opines on whether or not action can be taken,” Galbreath told reporters in a briefing call on tracking sexual assault cases in the military.
Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called on service secretaries to review equal opportunity programs to ensure discrimination complaints weren’t being “weaponized” by disgruntled employees.
The military tracks sexual harassment complaints through its equal opportunity personnel.
In his April 23 directive, Hegseth specifically called on secretaries to ensure “complaints that are unsubstantiated by actionable, credible evidence are timely dismissed.” He called it the “no more walking on eggshells policy.”
“Too often, at the Defense Department, there are complaints made that for certain reasons that can’t be verified that end people’s careers,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X.
“Some individuals use these programs in bad faith to retaliate against superiors or peers. I hear that all the time,” he said of general discrimination complaints.
When it comes to sexual assault, unfounded claims are extraordinarily rare. According to the military, 1% of cases involve evidence that either exonerates the person accused or shows the crime did not occur.
When asked if Hegseth’s latest mandate will raise the standard of proof for sexual assault victims, Galbreath said “no.”
President Donald Trump also asked the Pentagon to review regulations that are potentially burdensome and streamline operations, an effort that resulted in offers to employees for early retirement as well as hiring freezes across the department.
Galbreath and other officials told reporters Thursday that they aren’t sure exactly how the military’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program will be affected just yet.
When a recent hiring freeze went into effect, there were about 300 sexual assault prevention jobs put on hold, said Dr. Andra Tharp, director of the Defense Department’s office of command climate and well-being integration.
“We’re really trying to get our arms around total impacts of that,” she said.
Tharp said she is encouraging the services to seek hiring exemptions for sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates.
Galbreath said that 100% of victim services remain available now and that sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates are stationed at every military installation around the world.
The number of sexual assaults reported across the military fell by nearly 4% last year, according to data released by the department.
The report is the first full-year account since the Pentagon put in place new prosecution procedures that empower independent lawyers, rather than military commanders. The changes were called for by lawmakers who said not enough was being done to encourage personnel to report assault.
“Even though we’d like to see the number of reports increase, I’m still very satisfied that our military members know that they can come forward,” and “get the help that they need to recover,” said Galbreath.
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