Coast Guard leaders kept sexual assault investigation secret: Report

HARTFORD, Conn. — Former prime Coast Guard officers hid a yearslong investigation into sexual assault and harassment on the service’s academy from each Congress and the general public after leaders debated the fallout from a possible disclosure, in line with a U.S. Senate committee report launched Friday.

Coast Guard officers additionally took steps to take away references to the investigation, named Operation Fouled Anchor, from data submitted to Congress, in line with the report by the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations. The report adopted comparable findings launched final week by the Home Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

“Immediately’s report confirms and gives further highly effective proof that the cover-up of sexual assault within the Coast Guard was deliberate and purposeful and longstanding,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the committee, stated Friday. “The general public deserves a proof. So do the survivors.”

A Coast Guard spokesperson launched an announcement Friday night.

“The Coast Guard is keenly conscious of and is aggressively responding to the unacceptable actions underpinning the report — particularly sexual assault and sexual harassment,” the assertion stated. “The Coast Guard is working proactively to stop and scale back these devastating crimes, safe justice for survivors and supply the care and help victims want and deserve.”

Messages to officers on the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, weren’t instantly returned Friday. The Coast Guard beforehand apologized for the way it dealt with sexual misconduct complaints and stated it has made quite a few enhancements.

Operation Fouled Anchor ran from 2014 to 2019. The investigation reviewed greater than 100 allegations of sexual assault on the academy made out of the early Nineteen Nineties to 2006 and the way they have been dealt with. Coast Guard officers, nevertheless, didn’t totally disclose its existence to Congress or the general public till final yr. The existence of the investigation was first reported by CNN.

The investigation discovered that dozens of sexual assault and harassment instances involving academy cadets had been mishandled by the varsity, together with the prevention of some perpetrators from being prosecuted.

When the investigation did turn out to be public, it sparked requires reform and accountability for offenders and people who protected them. In addition they resulted in a number of authorities investigations and formal complaints by greater than 20 former cadets who stated they have been sexually assaulted.

Friday’s subcommittee report alleged that in 2018, Adm. Karl Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant on the time, made the choice to not publicly disclose Operation Foul Anchor, on the grounds that the investigation was not but full.

That call got here after the vice commandant on the time, Adm. Charles Ray, who like Schultz has since retired, mentioned the “professionals and cons of going exterior.”

The subcommittee stated a handwritten word by Ray stated the professionals of exposing the investigation publicly included “rip the band-aid off,” being proactive and purging “cultural guilt.” The cons, Ray wrote, in line with the congressional panel, included investigations with out finish and revictimizing folks. Ray additionally wrote the “downside is among the previous,” in line with the subcommittee.

Different Coast Guard officers introduced three situations for methods to deal with Operation Fouled Anchor, with a suggestion to solely talk about it if requested by Congress, the subcommittee stated.

The officers really helpful towards totally notifying Congress, writing that “any affirmative Congressional or exterior communication, particularly if briefed beneath a singular investigatory moniker with a colourful title, vice separate investigations, will threat the initiation of complete Congressional investigations, hearings, and media curiosity,” in line with the subcommittee.

Cellphone and textual content messages left at an inventory for Schultz weren’t instantly returned Friday. Contact info for Ray couldn’t instantly be discovered.

Schultz instructed CNN in an interview final week that he withheld the investigation from Congress as a result of he was involved elected officers wouldn’t shield victims’ privateness. He additionally denied allegations of a coverup and stated he believed there was no authorized obligation to present the investigation report back to Congress.

Schultz and Ray turned the highest leaders of the Coast Guard in 2018. The earlier leaders instructed the subcommittee that they’d supposed to reveal Operation Foul Anchor to Congress and the general public.

Friday’s report additionally stated the Coast Guard drafted at the least 17 variations of a remaining report for Operation Foul Anchor. The longest, at 26 pages, detailed assaults on the academy. The ultimate model was six pages and omitted a lot of the data in earlier drafts, the subcommittee stated.

The subcommittee’s report additionally accused Coast Guard officers of repeatedly failing to adjust to the panel’s investigation together with by failing to supply paperwork, “aggressively” redacting paperwork and erroneously claiming some paperwork have been privileged.

The Coast Guard responded that it has undergone an intensive effort to supply requested paperwork to Congress, together with analyzing greater than 1.8 million pages of emails, and has complied with congressional requests for info “to the fullest extent.”

The Senate subcommittee stated its investigation is constant.

“With the choice to maintain Operation Fouled Anchor from Congress and the general public, the Coast Guard failed itself and its members who survived sexual assault and sexual harassment throughout their time within the service,” the subcommittee’s report stated.