House Intelligence Committee finds CIA mishandled sexual assault and harassment claims
CNN
The CIA has “failed to handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment within its workforce” in a “professional and uniform manner,” and appeared to mete out “little to no accountability or punishment” for perpetrators, according to a House report released on Monday.
The CIA has “failed to handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment within its workforce” in a “professional and uniform manner,” and appeared to mete out “little to no accountability or punishment” for perpetrators, according to a House report released on Monday. The House Intelligence Committee, in an eight-page report summarizing the findings of its year-long investigation into the agency’s handling of sexual harassment and sexual assault, found that there was “confusion and disorder in the process for reporting” allegations. Victims, the report found, were “deterred from coming forward because victims did not have anonymity and were unable to seek confidential assistance.” Perhaps most damning, the report found that “victims were aware of little to no accountability or punishment for the perpetrators of the assaults or harassment often because of an inadequate investigatory process.” The CIA for more than a year has been embroiled in allegations by victims that it has “grossly mishandled” their allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Beginning in early 2023, a series of whistleblowers began to share testimony with the congressional intelligence committees. By the end of the year, both the Senate and the House committees had opened investigations, the CIA inspector general had initiated a “special review,” and at least one woman had sued the agency for, she claimed, discouraging her from lodging a criminal complaint against her assailant and attempting to intimidate her from testifying at his trial. The House committee said that it interviewed 26 whistleblowers during the course of its investigation. It also received 15 staff briefings and reviewed 4,000 pages of documents produced by the CIA, which it praised for cooperating with the investigation and said “demonstrated an eagerness to effectively prevent and respond to sexual assault and harassment instances.” The CIA has taken some steps to improve its handling of cases.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.