The commander and senior enlisted officer of a Navy SEAL team have been relieved of their duties after a nearly two-month investigation into claims of sexual assault and harassment, ABC News reported.
Cmdr. Jarrod Donaldson and Master Chief Jon Franklin were officially relieved of their positions by Capt. Jamie Sands, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Two, a Navy spokeswoman told ABC News.
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According to ABC, the Navy SEAL unit was deployed to East Africa when the allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced.
The two were sent back to the United States in May while the Navy Criminal Investigative Service investigation was underway. They were officially relieved of duty on July 9, according to ABC.
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According to defense officials. one of the leaders was being investigated following claims of inappropriate and unwanted physical contact with a female service member while the team was deployed. Both leaders were investigated for sexual harassment.
According to the Daily Beast, the accusations against Donaldson and Franklin came to light shortly after data released by the Pentagon showed that the number of sexual assaults in the Navy last year increased by 9.3 percent.
Noah Nash is a rising senior at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. At school, he is the editor in chief of the Collegian Magazine and the digital director of the Collegian, Kenyon's newspaper.
