WASHINGTON — The secretary of the Army said Tuesday he will have the final say on whether a disgraced brigadier general at the center of a sexual misconduct case retires at a lower rank with sharply reduced retirement pay.

Facing outraged members of the House, John McHugh said the case of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair remains open a week after he was spared prison and sentenced to a reprimand and a $20,000 fine.

“The process is still ongoing. I have to make final certifications about rank and retirement,” McHugh told the Armed Services Committee.

McHugh could bust Sinclair down to a lower rank which would mean a significantly reduced pension.

Sinclair had a three-year affair with a female captain who accused him of twice forcing her to perform oral sex on him. In a courtroom at Fort Bragg, N.C., the former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division was originally brought up on sexual assault charges punishable by life in prison.

He was believed to be the highest-ranking U.S. military officer ever court-martialed on such charges.

Sinclair pleaded guilty to lesser charges of adultery and conducting inappropriate relationships with two others by asking them for nude pictures and exchanging sexually explicit email. His sentence of a reprimand and a fine prompted an outcry in Congress that showed no signs of abating during the hearing.

Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., who along with Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio spearheaded changes to the law to deal with sexual assault in the ranks, called the outcome in the case “shocking” and complained about a “toxic military culture.”

“These series of incidents … raises the very serious question of whether the Uniform Code of Military Justice can be fairly called an instrument of justice and whether an organization where rank and the pecking order created by rank can ever rise above the dictates of deference that rank demands,” Tsongas told McHugh and Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the chief of staff of the Army.