House Intelligence Committee finds CIA mishandled sexual assault and harassment claims

Originally Published: 22 APR 24 11:07 ET

By Katie Bo Lillis, CNN

(CNN) — The CIA has “failed to handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment within its workforce” in a “professional and uniform manner,” and appeared to mete out “little to no accountability or punishment” for perpetrators, according to a House report released on Monday.

The House Intelligence Committee, in an eight-page report summarizing the findings of its year-long investigation into the agency’s handling of sexual harassment and sexual assault, found that there was “confusion and disorder in the process for reporting” allegations. Victims, the report found, were “deterred from coming forward because victims did not have anonymity and were unable to seek confidential assistance.”

Perhaps most damning, the report found that “victims were aware of little to no accountability or punishment for the perpetrators of the assaults or harassment often because of an inadequate investigatory process.”

The CIA for more than a year has been embroiled in allegations by victims that it has “grossly mishandled” their allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Beginning in early 2023, a series of whistleblowers began to share testimony with the congressional intelligence committees. By the end of the year, both the Senate and the House committees had opened investigations, the CIA inspector general had initiated a “special review,” and at least one woman had sued the agency for, she claimed, discouraging her from lodging a criminal complaint against her assailant and attempting to intimidate her from testifying at his trial.

The House committee said that it interviewed 26 whistleblowers during the course of its investigation. It also received 15 staff briefings and reviewed 4,000 pages of documents produced by the CIA, which it praised for cooperating with the investigation and said “demonstrated an eagerness to effectively prevent and respond to sexual assault and harassment instances.”

The CIA has taken some steps to improve its handling of cases.

In 2023, the agency announced that it had appointed a Navy psychologist to head an office responsible for responding to sexual assault allegations. She was tasked with improving the agency’s handling of such claims.

But her office, the House report found, “lacked the necessary resources and authority to fulfill its intended purpose.”

In a statement, a CIA spokesperson said that recent legislation drafted by the committee had enabled it to expand the office and “provide additional support to officers.”

“We take the issue of sexual assault and harassment extremely seriously,” the spokesperson said. “We are absolutely committed to fostering a safe, respectful workplace environment for our employees and have taken significant steps to ensure that, both by bolstering our focus on prevention and strengthening the Agency’s handling of these issues when they arise.”

The report also found that “there was an inconsistent approach to, or lack of, timely coordination with law enforcement.”

Meanwhile, the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity “had internal issues that rendered it unable to effectively engage in response efforts,” the report said.

One of the challenges that the agency faces is that if either or both the victim and the perpetrator are operating under cover, some officials say, it becomes logistically challenging to lodge a complaint with local law enforcement without jeopardizing that cover. In August, the Fairfax County General District Court broke new ground when it convicted a CIA officer accused of assaulting an unnamed female colleague in a stairway of assault and battery.

The CIA has since fired the victim in that case in what her attorney claims is clear retaliation; a CIA spokesman at the time called the statement “factually inaccurate.”

Congress in December passed a series of reforms informed by the testimony and investigation, including creating a new reporting process, requiring the CIA director to develop uniform policies and training, and establishing a “Special Victim Investigator” who would investigate reports of assault and harassment. The investigator would be required to coordinate internal investigations with the relevant law enforcement agency “as necessary and appropriate in the event the victim chooses to pursue civilian criminal charges.”

Kevin Carroll, who represents the former CIA employee who was assaulted in the stairway, praised the report as “excellent” but added that ongoing congressional oversight is needed.

“In particular, the Agency needs to stop retaliating against whistleblowers who step forward to speak about sex crimes, cooperate with law enforcement investigations and prosecutions of these crimes, including by local authorities,” he said.

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