Former US Coast Guard chief reveals why he withheld sexual assault investigation from Congress

Ex-Commandant Karl Schultz said he didn’t share the findings of a probe known as Fouled Anchor with Congress because he worried lawmakers wouldn’t protect the privacy of the victims.

The former leader of the US Coast Guard who withheld from Congress the explosive findings of an investigation that documented years of sexual assaults at the agency’s prestigious academy said he did so because he worried lawmakers wouldn’t protect the privacy of the victims. “I made my decision, and I stand by that,” former Commandant Karl Schultz said in an exclusive interview with CNN. “There are people who feel wronged by that, and I truly in my heart feel terrible about that. But I don’t think that changes my calculus.” Schultz, who has become a lightning rod for criticism over his handling of the matter, disputed that he was trying to cover up the investigation known as “Operation Fouled Anchor.” That secret investigation, which was revealed by CNN, substantiated dozens of rapes and assault allegations from the late 1980s to 2006 that had been botched by Coast Guard officials at the time. A internal report on the probe was finalized in 2020 and concluded that the academy’s leadership had been more concerned about the school’s reputation than victims’ wellbeing and found that some perpetrators continued to thrive within the service. The report was not released to Congress or the public. In his first public statements since the scandal broke, Schultz said he knew if he had presented the findings to Congress, lawmakers would have seen it as a political opportunity. He said the way Congress is responding now is evidence he was right. “I knew they would see it as, ‘Here’s the scandal and that they would blow it up,’” said Schultz, who retired in 2022. In his view, lawmakers would have pressed for more information, which ultimately would have been leaked publicly and harmed the victims and some alleged perpetrators who had been exonerated by the investigation. Providing them an overview of the findings, he said, “wouldn’t have been the end of it.”