The CIA this week terminated a lady whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell on the spy company’s headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come back ahead with their very own complaints of sexual misconduct. The lady’s legal professional known as the motion a brazen retaliation.
Whereas the CIA stated that accusation was “factually inaccurate,” it would not remark additional on the case and declined to clarify why the 36-year-old didn’t make it by the company’s clandestine officer coaching program referred to as “the Farm” and, in contrast to lots of her classmates, was not employed into one other job.
“To be clear, the CIA doesn’t tolerate sexual assault, sexual harassment or whistleblower retaliation,” CIA spokesperson Tammy Thorp instructed The Related Press, including the company makes use of “constant processes to make sure the truthful and equal remedy of each officer going by coaching.”
The lady’s termination got here lower than six months after she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the CIA retaliated in opposition to her for reporting what she stated was a 2022 stairwell assault in Langley, Virginia, to regulation enforcement and testifying about it in a closed congressional listening to.
The lawsuit accused the company of giving her harsher efficiency critiques and “slut shaming” her by improperly releasing her private info through the state prosecution final 12 months of Ashkan Bayatpour, a then-fellow CIA trainee convicted of assaulting her with a shawl.
The lady’s legal professional, Kevin Carroll, instructed the AP that the CIA has now “unlawfully ended a younger lady’s profession solely as a result of she had the ethical braveness, missing in her managers, to face up and be a witness about her sexual assault.”
“The company’s festering office sexual violence drawback,” Carroll stated, “is now harming the retention of younger girls who received’t put up with it any longer.”
The lady, who isn’t being recognized as a result of the AP doesn’t typically establish victims of alleged sexual abuse, was credited with launching a reckoning, of kinds, on the CIA as a result of hers was the uncommon allegation of sexual misconduct on the super-secret spy company to make it right into a public courtroom.
An AP investigation discovered the case helped embolden no less than two-dozen girls to come back ahead to authorities and Congress over the previous two years with their very own accounts on the CIA of sexual assaults, undesirable touching and what they contend is a marketing campaign to maintain them from talking out.
Their accusations ranged from lewd remarks about sexual fantasies at after-work pleased hours to a case through which a senior supervisor allegedly confirmed up at a subordinate’s home at night time with a firearm demanding intercourse. A few of the alleged incidents return years and passed off as officers had been on dangerous covert missions abroad, whereas others passed off at CIA headquarters.
A congressional inquiry and bipartisan requires a watchdog investigation prompted CIA Director William Burns final 12 months to launch a collection of reforms to streamline claims, assist victims and extra rapidly self-discipline these behind misconduct.
It stays unclear whether or not the girl’s firing will immediate additional motion. Places of work of the U.S. senators main the inquiry, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner and Florida Republican Marco Rubio, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Carroll, the girl’s legal professional, stated she had been given protected whistleblower standing earlier than talking with Congress. However these acquainted with the Whistleblower Safety Act cautioned that such protections will be restricted, particularly on the CIA.
Tom Devine, a longtime whistleblower rights advocate who’s authorized director for the Authorities Accountability Challenge, stated CIA workers don’t have the identical rights as different federal workers due to nationwide safety considerations.
“You may blow the whistle, however solely throughout the intel neighborhood,” Devine stated. “So when she went to the police, she was very a lot on her personal. It’s an obnoxious loophole.”
In her testimony to a Virginia jury final summer season, the girl recounted the second when Bayatpour allegedly tightened the headband round her neck and tried to kiss her in opposition to her will.
“He made a face like he was making an attempt to actually harm me,” she testified. “That face, that’s what stays with me to at the present time. That’s the toughest half.”
Bayatpour acknowledged wrapping the headband across the lady within the stairwell however insisted his actions had been supposed in jest throughout a 40-minute stroll collectively. The incident, his legal professional stated, was “a joke that didn’t land the best way it was supposed to land.”
Bayatpour, a 39-year-old Alabama native and former Navy intelligence officer, remained employed at CIA for a number of months after he was convicted in August of misdemeanor assault and battery, sentenced to 6 months probation and ordered to give up any firearms.
However as of final month, he now not works for CIA, in accordance with an individual acquainted with the scenario who wasn’t licensed to debate the matter and spoke on the situation of anonymity.
Bayatpour deferred inquiries to his legal professional, who didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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Mustian reported from New York and Goodman from Miami.
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Contact AP’s international investigative crew at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/
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