WASHINGTON — With the female accuser looking on, two prominent women on Tuesday exerted their considerable influence on matters relating to sexual assault and the military, saying that they do not believe that President Trump’s nominee for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sexually assaulted a subordinate multiple times in 2017.

Both Heather A. Wilson, the former Air Force secretary, and Senator Martha McSally, Republican of Arizona and a self-described survivor of sexual assault in the military, strongly and unequivocally defended Gen. John E. Hyten of the Air Force during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Seated several rows behind the general was Col. Kathryn A. Spletstoser, a 28-year Army officer with four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an interview last week with The New York Times, she described numerous instances of unwanted touching by the general, culminating in what she described as an assault in her hotel room in December 2017.

Air Force officials said an investigation found no evidence to corroborate Colonel Spletstoser’s accusations. (Investigators also said they found no evidence that she lied.)