Alex Wong
A judge has ruled the specificity of President Obama’s recent comments concerning the alarming increase in military sexual assaults to be “unlawful command influence.” As a result of the decision, two defendants currently awaiting trial cannot be punitively discharged, even if found guilty of sexual assault. Obama’s damning comments? He called the crimes “an outrage” and said he expected accountability. “If we find out somebody is engaging in this stuff, they’ve got to be held accountable—prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period. It’s not acceptable,” he said. The ruling puts other defense attorneys in a position to use the same argument in other military sexual-assault cases. Because that totally makes sense.