CIA mishandled sexual assault, harassment within its ranks, internal review finds

The Central Intelligence Agency has mishandled sexual assault and workplace harassment within its ranks, according to a recently completed comprehensive internal review conducted at the direction of the Senate.

Agency officials have “not been wholly successful in preventing, or efficiently and effectively responding to, workplace harassment and sexual assault incidents,” CIA Inspector General Robin Ashton said in a statement describing the results of the review.

Details of the review, including 22 recommendations, are in a 648-page classified report that has been provided to CIA Director William Burns and other agency leaders, Ashton said in the statement to POLITICO.

Agency leaders cooperated with the review and have begun to take steps to address its findings but it’s too soon to gauge their success, according to the IG. “Only time will tell if the significant changes that are in the process of being implemented will have the desired and sustained effect,” Ashton said.

Burns said in a statement Tuesday that the CIA has taken steps to make it easier for employees to report abuse and expanded the agency’s capacity to investigate claims. “I take the issue of sexual harassment and sexual assault extremely seriously,” he said.

The Senate intelligence committee last summer asked the IG to do the review, and the House intelligence committee recently found that the CIA failed to punish perpetrators of sexual assault within its ranks after its own investigation.

Ashton notified agency employees last week that her office had completed its report, telling employees in a message that they “all must demand, create, and sustain a culture of safety and respect” and that people who witness harassment or abuse should speak out. The review was delivered to the congressional committees in May and the IG briefed both committees’ staff last month.

A CIA spokesperson said that Burns’ top priority is to keep officers safe and he takes such issues seriously, and that its reform efforts are in line with the IG’s 22 recommendations to address the issue.

The spokesperson said the agency has “more work to do” but “we have made significant improvements in expanding support for those affected by sexual assault and all forms of harassment, to include sexual harassment.”

The House intelligence committee did a similar review, interviewed more than 20 CIA whistleblowers and found that there was “little to no accountability or punishment for confirmed perpetrators.” 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.

Kevin Carroll, a lawyer who represented several of the whistleblowers, said in a statement to POLITICO: “CIA’s Office of Inspector General was compassionate, discrete and professional with my clients who offered testimony to the IG. I commend the IG for issuing a report, and the Senate intelligence committee for asking the IG to produce it. I hope an unclassified version is released as soon as possible, because after all, sex crimes are not classified.”