‘A deep moral rot’: Coast Guard leader grilled by senators at hearing on sexual assault cover-up

Senators say US Coast Guard leader has fostered a “culture of concealment,” withheld critical information from congressional investigators.

Senators blasted the head of the US Coast Guard at a contentious hearing on Tuesday, saying she has fostered a “culture of concealment,” withheld critical information from congressional investigators and failed to hold leaders and perpetrators accountable for serious misconduct. “Our investigation has shown a deep moral rot within the Coast Guard now,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chair of the Homeland Security Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has been looking into the Coast Guard’s past mishandling of sexual assault cases. “One that prioritizes cronyism over accountability, silence over survivors.” Blumenthal and other lawmakers from the subcommittee told Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan that their investigation has found that sexual assault remains a “persistent and unacceptably prevalent” issue across the service, despite her initial assurances that it was a problem of the past. Nearly 40 whistleblowers have come forward to the subcommittee in recent months, lawmakers said. At the hearing, Fagan was questioned about what specific steps she was taking to ensure those who commit serious misconduct, as well as those who cover up their crimes, are removed from the service. “Are you aware that there are more survivors who leave the Coast Guard than perpetrators?” asked Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, where the Coast Guard Academy is based. “This problem is not one of the past. It is real and present … and the evidence is not in my voice, it is the voices and faces of the whistleblowers … they are in my view heroes in this story.” The hearing was sparked by CNN’s reporting on the results of a secret investigation — dubbed Operation Fouled Anchor, which was quietly closed and hidden from Congress and the public despite substantiating dozens of sexual assaults that had previously been mishandled at the Coast Guard’s prestigious academy. At a previous hearing led by the same subcommittee, four sexual assault victims testified about how they were silenced, retaliated against and left battling severe mental trauma while alleged perpetrators continued to thrive within the service.