Biden to back changes in military sexual assault prosecution

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is putting his stamp of approval on a long-debated change to the military justice system that would remove decisions on prosecuting sexual assault cases from military commanders. Biden, however, is stopping short of backing a congressional effort to strip commanders of oversight of all major crimes.

That’s according to two senior administration officials.

The changes include a call to shift prosecution decisions on sexual assault cases to special victims’ prosecutors outside of the chain of command and remove the military’s sexual assault response coordinators and victims advocates from the command structure system.