Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have been listening today and a few other days, I think, about Senator Gillibrand's efforts to bring up what I think is a major reform of the military justice system to the point where you won't recognize it as it is today. I hope you understand what we are being asked to do here. Senator Reed, who is the chairman of the committee, has been objecting. Before I got here, I was a military lawyer and Active Duty in the Reserves for about 33 years. I was a prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge. What I would like to challenge this body to do is find me cases where the judge advocate has recommended prosecution in a sexual assault case in the last 8 years and the commander refused to go forward. I was in the military JAG Corps for 33 years. I can only remember one time where that was even an issue. Previous efforts to reform the system work like the following: If the JAG recommends prosecution in a sexual assault case as defined in the last piece of legislation and they refuse to go forward, it is taken to the commander's commander. So what problem are we trying to solve here? What we are doing in this bill is relieving the chain of command when it comes to military justice. If the commander no longer is concerned about sexual assaults in the barracks, we made a huge mistake. The heart and soul of the military justice system is to provide a fair trial to the accused, take care of victims, but give the commander the tools they need for good order and discipline.…”