A victim’s attorney told DCNF that the House Intelligence Committee has opened an investigation into the CIA. Three female employees who claim to have been sexually assaulted, by employees of the agency, were told they would be retaliated against if they did not remain silent.
Kevin Carroll, the attorney of one of the victims who declined to comment publicly, told the Daily Caller News Foundation his client had been assaulted by a CIA employee, who tried to kiss her and accost. She said that the employee “wrapped me in a thick winter scarve, strangled me and tried to kiss my lips. He also manhandled and accosted me and repeatedly told her, ‘This what I want to be doing to you.’
Carroll stated that when she reported the incident, the CIA Office of Security warned her not to speak with law enforcement. Otherwise, she would no longer be “protected”, and her career at the agency would come to an end. The DCNF received a copy her police report.
The report mentions the fact that “the assailant admitted his assault against me to my employer (which was recorded in written form),” but there was no action taken.
Carroll told DCNF that the FBI had interviewed his client. Local law enforcement is investigating the incident. Carroll told the DCNF that the Department of Justice refused to press charges after the interview.
She was told that seeking counseling or psychiatric care after the alleged assault would violate security. She told police that she was told reporting the assault to law-enforcement or seeking necessary health care would have negative career effects, and force her to choose a new career.
Carroll, the agency’s Office of General Counsel said later that this instruction should not have been given.
Politico reports that two other women, who also spoke to the committee, both claimed they had been sexually assaulted or raped at work by a male CIA employee. A police report stated that his client was assaulted in Virginia at Langley, the CIA’s headquarters.
Burns promised to cooperate with the investigation after the committee wrote him a letter last week. Other CIA officials told Politico that the woman’s claim was not true. We haven’t blocked or threatened anyone.”
The committee refused to release the letter when contacted and instead issued a statement on the subject. A DCNF official who was privy to this matter said the DCNF is examining the issue in order to draft legislation to address sexual assaults within the intelligence community.
Carroll, a former CIA employee, said that sexual assault and rape were major problems within the intelligence community. He said that 54 women who knew his client spoke out in the past few months about harassment they experienced while working at the CIA.
In the past few years, there have been several high-profile sexual assault scandals. In 2010, a former officer Andrew Warren, who assaulted an unconscious woman in the U.S. embassy in Algeria, was convicted of committing sexual assault. CIA agent Brian Raymond pleaded to two counts of sexual abuse against unconscious victims.
The DCNF’s request for comment was not immediately responded to by the CIA or FBI.
