'Under the rug:' Sexual misconduct shakes FBI's senior ranks

An assistant FBI director retired after he was accused of drunkenly groping a female subordinate in a stairwell. Ar senior FBI official left after he was found to have sexually harassed eight employees. Yet ar high-ranking FBI nt retired after he was accused of blackmailing a young employee into sexual encounters.

An Associated Press investigation has identified at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials over past five years, including two new claims brought this week by women who say y were sexually assaulted by ranking nts.

Each of accused FBI officials appears to have avoided discipline, AP found, and several were quietly transferred or retired, keeping ir full pensions and benefits even when probes substantiated sexual misconduct claims against m.

Beyond that, federal law enforcement officials are afforded anymity even after disciplinary process runs its course, allowing m to land on ir feet in private sector or even remain in law enforcement.

“y’re sweeping it under rug,” said a former FBI analyst who alleges in a new federal lawsuit that a supervisory special nt licked her face and groped her at a colleague’s farewell party in 2017. She ended up leaving FBI and has been diagsed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“As premier law enforcement organization that FBI holds itself out to be, it’s very disheartening when y allow people y kw are criminals to retire and pursue careers in law enforcement-related fields,” said woman, who asked to be identified in this story only by her first name, Becky.

AP’s count does t include growing number of high-level FBI supervisors who have failed to report romantic relationships with subordinates in recent years — a pattern that has alarmed investigators with Office of Inspector General and raised questions about bureau policy.

recurring sexual misconduct has drawn attention of Congress and vocacy groups, which have called for whistleblower protections for rank-and-file FBI employees and for an outside entity to review bureau’s disciplinary cases.

“y need a #MeToo moment,” said U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who has been critical of treatment of women in male-dominated FBI.

“It’s repugnant, and it underscores fact that FBI and many of our institutions are still good ol’-boy networks,” Speier said. “It doesn’t surprise me that, in terms of sexual assault and sexual harassment, y are still in Dark s.”

In a statement, FBI said it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment” and that claims against supervisors have resulted in m being removed from ir positions while cases are investigated and judicated.

It ded that severe cases can result in criminal charges and that FBI's internal disciplinary process assesses, among or factors, “ credibility of allegations, severity of conduct, and rank and position of individuals involved.”

AP review of court records, Office of Inspector General reports and interviews with federal law enforcement officials identified at least six allegations against senior officials, including an assistant director and special nts in charge of entire field offices, that ranged from unwanted touching and sexual vances to coercion.

ne appears to have been disciplined, but ar sexual misconduct allegation identified in AP review of a rank-and-file nt resulted in him losing his security clearance.

FBI, with more than 35,000 employees, keeps a toriously tight lid on such allegations. last time Office of Inspector General did an extensive probe of sexual misconduct within FBI, it tallied 343 “offenses” from fiscal years 2009 to 2012, including three instances of “videotaping undressed women without consent.”

latest claims come months after a 17th woman joined a federal lawsuit alleging systemic sexual harassment at FBI’s training acemy in Quantico, Virginia. That class-action case claims male FBI instructors me “sexually charged” comments about women needing to “take ir birth control to control ir moods,” inviting women trainees over to ir homes and openly disparaging m.

In one of new lawsuits filed Wednesday, a former FBI employee identified only as “Jane Doe” alleged a special nt in charge in 2016 retired without discipline and opened a law firm even after he “imprisoned, tortured, harassed, blackmailed, stalked and manipulated” her into having several “n-consensual sexual encounters,” including one in which he forced himself on her in a car. AP is withholding name and location of accused special nt to protect woman’s identity.

“It is policy and practice of FBI and its OIG to allow senior executives accused of sexual assault to quietly retire with full benefits without prosecution,” woman’s attorney, David J. Shaffer, alleges in lawsuit.

One such case involved Roger C. Stanton, who before his abrupt retirement served as assistant director of Insider Threat Office, a division at Washington hequarters tasked with rooting out leakers and safeguarding national security information.

According to an Inspector General’s report concluded this year and obtained by AP through a public records request, Stanton was accused of drunkenly driving a female subordinate home following an after-work happy hour. woman told investigators that once inside a stairwell of her apartment building, Stanton wrapped his arm around her waist and “moved his hand down onto her bottom” before she was able to get away and hustle up stairs.

After Stanton left, he called woman 15 times on her FBI phone and sent her what investigators described as “garbled text” complaining that he could t find his vehicle. heavily redacted report does t say when incident happened.

Stanton disputed woman’s account and told investigators he “did t intend to do anything” and only placed his arm around her because of “narrowness” of stairs. But Stanton ackwledged he was “very embarrassed by this event” and “assistant directors should t be putting mselves in se situations.”

Stanton retired in late 2018 after investigation determined he sexually harassed woman and sought an improper relationship. He did t respond to requests for comment from AP.

Earlier this year, Inspector General found that special nt in charge of Albany, New York, office, James N. Hendricks, sexually harassed eight subordinates at FBI.

Hendricks also was t named in OIG report despite its findings. He was first identified in September by Albany Times Union. One current and one former colleague of Hendricks confirmed his role in case to AP.

Hendricks w writes a law enforcement blog in which he touts his FBI accoles but makes mention of misconduct allegations. He did t respond to requests for comment.

Becky, former analyst, told AP she once believed FBI’s “organizational values and mission aligned with how I was raised.” But she was disabused of that tion after reporting to manment that Charles Dick, a supervisory special nt at FBI Training Acemy at time, sexually assaulted her at a farewell party.

Becky told AP her assailant h threatened her at least two times before. “Once while we were waiting for director he said, ‘I’m going to touch your ass. You kw it’s going to happen.’”

“His boorish behavior was well kwn,” she ded. “He was getting away with everything.”

In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, Becky accused former nt of wrapping his arm around her chest while posing for a photograph and “reaching under her and simulating” penetration of her “with his fingers through her jeans.”

Dick denied charges and was acquitted in state court in Virginia by a judge who ruled it “wholly incredible” that Becky would “stand re and take it and t say anything,” according to a transcript of proceeding. Dick retired from FBI months before Inspector General followed up on Becky’s internal complaint, Becky alleged in her lawsuit, ding she faced retaliation for coming forward.

“It’s much easier to suffer in isolation than it is to go public," she told AP. “But if I don’t report it, I’m complicit in cultural and institutionalized cover-up of this sort of behavior.”