SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- San Diego Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs is calling on the Department of Defense to investigate whether current military service members were involved in the attacks on the U.S. capitol on January 6.
Jacobs and Congressman Ruben Gallego, wrote to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller on January 10, stating that “any current or former military members who may have participated have disgraced themselves and committed serious crimes against the people of the United States. Any such individuals should have the book thrown at them for violated their oaths and duty to the nation.”
Jacobs says she has not received an official response from the Department of Defense but this will be a topic of discussion in future House Armed Services Committee hearings.
She said she was spurred to action by hundreds of calls from her constituents, "they wanted us to make sure we looked into it and that we held these people accountable really to uphold their oath and their honor because they felt it was being besmirched by all of these people they were hearing about."
When asked what message she hopes the letter sends, she responded, "I think it's important that the Department of Defense takes very seriously the extremism and violence against women we've seen in the military. There are very very very many incredibly honorable people serving in our military and they themselves are the ones that want to root out this kind of ideology and this behavior."
Jacobs believes more training teaching troops how to identify and root out bad apples, coupled with supportive programs could prevent this from happening again.
"A part of why this has become such an issue is because of the forever wars, where we're having these constant deployments, we're putting such a burden on the troops, we're not giving them the kind of mental healthcare that we need, not to excuse any of this behavior, but looking forward to make sure we put some of those programs in place," she said.
Jacobs is a third generation San Diegan with a grandfather who served in the Navy. She said she's saddened to know military members were involved in the Capitol riots.
She hasn't left the Capitol since the riots and will attend Joe Biden's Inauguration. She said it's important not to let fear stand in the way of democracy.
Jacobs said current and former military members are held under an extra set of rules, called the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
