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Biden backs changes in military sexual assault prosecution

Joe Biden
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has put 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. The changes Biden approved on Friday include shifting prosecution decisions on sexual assault cases to special victims' prosecutors outside the chain of command to remove any appearance of a conflict of interest. Reports of sexual assaults in the military have steadily gone up since 2006.