House committee finds CIA at fault in investigation on sexual assaults
The House intelligence committee has found that the CIA failed to properly deal with sexual assault among employees in its ranks, according to a copy of the investigation’s final report obtained by POLITICO.
In its hardest-hitting finding, the bipartisan report said there was “little to no accountability or punishment for confirmed perpetrators” and that there was “confusion and disorder” in the process of reporting such assaults.
The committee started its inquiry in January 2023 after a female CIA employee alleged that she had been physically attacked and sexually assaulted by a fellow officer at CIA headquarters. POLITICO, which revealed the investigation last April, reported that the agency had not punished a male colleague who had tried to forcibly kiss her repeatedly and that the agency did nothing when she reported the incident.
Numerous other whistleblowers also went to the committee and shared their own stories of sexual assault and harassment while at the agency. During its investigation, the committee interviewed more than 20 CIA whistleblowers, reviewed more than 4,000 pages of documents the agency gave it and held two oversight hearings.
“Over the course of the investigation, the committee discovered that CIA failed to handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment within its workforce in the professional and uniform manner that such sensitive allegations warrant,” the committee wrote in the executive summary.
The CIA said that it established an office in 2021 that advocates for officers who are dealing with sexual assault and harassment concerns and last June hired an experienced outside expert on sexual assault to lead that office. It said it also has made changes to strengthen its disciplinary processes and streamlined the way employees can report allegations and find resources to address their individual circumstances.
“We take the issue of sexual assault and harassment extremely seriously,” the agency said in a statement. “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.”
In February, the CIA fired the initial whistleblower in what the victim’s lawyer said was a blatant act of retaliation for reporting the assault, which resulted in her attacker, Ashkan Bayatpour, getting convicted of assaulting her by tightening a scarf around her neck. (He no longer works at Langley.)
The attorney, Kevin Carroll, told the Associated Press that the agency had “unlawfully ended a young woman’s career only because she had the moral courage, lacking in her managers, to stand up and be a witness about her sexual assault.” The CIA denied that it had done anything wrong and had not deviated from its processes to ensure “equal and fair treatment of every officer going through training.”
The unclassified report also said that victims were not encouraged to come forward with such allegations since the agency didn’t give them anonymity and that the CIA did not do enough to coordinate with law enforcement when employees reported assaults.
It added that the agency’s sexual assault prevention office did not have enough resources and power to do its job and that the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity had unspecified “internal issues that rendered it unable to effectively engage in response efforts.”
That EEO office has come under severe criticism from some lawyers of victims saying that it has discouraged people from filing complaints by claiming it’s not in the best interests of the women or would trigger disclosure of classified information. The agency said that it recently named a CIA veteran to lead the office with a focus on equity and transparency and has also added staff to the office.
The committee “heard directly from whistleblowers who courageously shared their stories in order to push for change and accountability,” intel committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said in a joint statement. “Our committee has put in place significant legislative reforms to address failures, and we will continue to monitor progress to ensure there is no slippage in the agency’s commitment to addressing sexual assault and harassment.”
The committee said the agency had cooperated with the investigation and “demonstrated an eagerness to effectively prevent and respond to sexual assault and harassment instances.” It also praised CIA Director Bill Burns and other senior leadership for working with the committee during its investigation.
During the course of its probe, the committee and later Congress passed legislative language in the Intelligence Authorization Act that is supposed to improve how victims report assaults and give more options to them to confidentially report such attacks and also require more sunlight into how such reports are handled.
