Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair leaving the courthouse at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Photo: Ellen Ozier/Reuters

The trial of a US Army general charged with sexual assault was delayed indefinitely after the prosecution’s case hit a stumbling block when a judge ruled that politics fuelled the decision to court-martial the military commander.

A military judge dismissed jurors shortly after the case resumed yesterday without scheduling a restart date.

The judge, Colonel James Pohl, found on Monday that politics had been unlawfully injected into the rare court-martial of Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair, but refused to dismiss the sexual assault charges.

Sinclair was charged with forcible sodomy based on allegations by a female US Army captain that could send the 51-year-old general to prison for life.

The judge said he would allow Sinclair to renew a previous offer, rejected by military leaders at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for the most serious allegations of coercive sex acts being dropped.

Sinclair’s lead lawyer, Richard Scheff, said the defence and prosecutors had begun discussing how the case would proceed but it could be several weeks before they return to court. “None of our positions have changed. If we cannot resolve this case that’s great, if we can try it we will defend the general vigorously,” Scheff said.

The judge ruled that Sinclair’s plea offer was only rejected after improper consideration was given to a letter in December from the main accuser’s lawyer that invoked politics while urging them to deny the offer.

Scheff said the convening authority in the case, Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, rejected the offer after the accuser’s lawyer warned Anderson in the letter that it “would have an adverse effect on my client and the Army’s fight against sexual assault.”

The letter from the lawyer, Captain Cassie Fowler, also referred to a debate among US lawmakers about whether prosecution decisions in sexual assault cases should be removed from military commanders.

The 34-year-old US Army captain gave tearful testimony last week, describing how Sinclair twice forced her to engage in oral sex when she tried to break off their secret three-year-long affair. She said Sinclair threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the relationship.

The married general denies sexually assaulting the captain 17 years his junior and says the relationship was consensual, although inappropriate by military standards.