Air Force JAG gives up duties
WASHINGTON – The top lawyer in the Air Force has temporarily given up his job after coming under investigation for allegedly having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female subordinate and perhaps with other women, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. Maj. Gen. Thomas Fiscus, the Air Force’s judge advocate general, asked last week to be relieved of his duties while the investigation is pending, according to a memorandum sent Monday to all Air Force lawyers.
“I ask each of you to refrain from speculation and to caution others that rumors and conjecture needlessly damage reputations and careers,” wrote Maj. Gen. Jack Rives, the Air Force’s number-two lawyer. Rives said in the memo that he is assuming Fiscus’ duties until the inspector general’s investigation is completed.
Investigators are examining Fiscus’ relationship with a female Air Force lawyer who joined his office this year, said officials familiar with the situation. Investigators are looking especially at e-mail exchanges between the two, a Pentagon official said. But their inquiry is broader than just that relationship, another official said.
Fiscus did not return calls to his office and home seeking comment. The female officer being investigated also did not return calls.
Col. Jay DeFrank, an Air Force spokesman, said that “the memo pretty much summarizes” the situation, declining to elaborate.
The investigation of Fiscus, first disclosed by Air Force Times, an independent newspaper, is likely to gain unusual attention for three reasons.
In recent years, the Air Force has experienced several major incidents of sexual harassment or abuse, most notably at the Air Force Academy. Also, in 1997, it suffered through one of the highest-profile military trials in the modern era after it charged a female bomber pilot, Lt. Kelly Flinn, with adultery, insubordination and lying. One charge against Flinn was that she had a sexual relationship with the spouse of a subordinate. The case ended with her accepting a general discharge rather than be court-martialed.
Since then, said David Sheldon, a defense lawyer specializing in military cases, “The Air Force has taken sexual harassment and fraternization very seriously.”
In a 2000 case, a military court ruled that affairs between officers can be illegal even when they are consensual. That matter involved an Air Force squadron commander who was found to have developed an improper relationship with a female intelligence officer.
Now the top lawyer in the Air Force is being investigated along the same lines.
The case is also significant because in the history of the military no judge advocate general, as the top uniformed lawyer in any service is called, has been relieved for unprofessional conduct, a Pentagon official said.
In addition, Air Force lawyers have been among the most vocal over the past two years in challenging the Bush administration’s handling of detainee issues.