The Department of Justice said Friday it has "substantial evidence" that county prosecutors in Missoula, Mont., a city under investigation since May 2012 and known to many as America's "rape capital", discriminated against sexual assault victims on the basis of gender.

According to the DOJ, between January 2008 and May 2012, the Missoula Police Department recommended the Missoula County Attorney's Office prosecute 85 reports of sexual assault of adult women. But prosecutors only took action in 14 of the 85 cases.

"[Female] sexual assault victims in Missoula are deprived of fundamental legal protections and often re-victimized by MCAO's response to their reports of abuse," U.S. attorneys wrote in a findings letter to County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg.

In the letter, Missoula prosecutors are accused of giving low priority to sexual assault cases — an "institutionalized indifference" that "perpetuates a culture that tolerates sexual assault, dissuades victims from reporting crimes, leaves violent criminal activity unaddressed, and compromises the safety of all women in Missoula."

In a statement to Mother Jones, Van Valkenburg said, "Everything the DOJ is saying about our office is false. These people are as unethical as any I have ever seen. They obviously have a political agenda they want to push and the truth does not matter to them."

Here are details of the Justice Department's allegations against the county attorney: