New case of physical assault at the CIA workplace: Secret service covers up extent of sexual misconduct within its own ranks

LEESBURG, Va. — At an impromptu party in his office to celebrate his 50th birthday, a veteran CIA agent got drunk, reached up a colleague's skirt and forced a kiss in front of his stunned colleagues, according to charges in the agency's latest sexual misconduct case to go before an open court.

An Associated Press investigation found that Donald Asquith's alleged assault last year came just days after the CIA pledged to crack down on sexual misconduct within its ranks — though the agency refused to reveal details about the extent of the problem. A recently released 648-page internal audit report that found systematic deficiencies in the CIA's handling of such complaints was classified as “secret” and shielded as a potential national security threat.

“It is inconceivable that sexual misconduct could be considered a state secret,” said Kevin Carroll, an attorney who represents several women at the agency who have filed complaints.

The watchdog report followed an earlier AP investigation that found at least two dozen CIA women had come forward to authorities and Congress, reporting sexual assault, unwanted touching and a campaign to silence them.

Many were encouraged by a CIA cadet who went to the police in 2022 after the agency failed to take action against a colleague she accused of attacking her with a scarf in the stairwell of CIA headquarters. Some of those women now say they have experienced retaliation, including the victim of the stairwell attack, who was fired less than six months after suing the agency.

“I had blind faith in the institution and in all the things the agency was supposedly doing to fix what I saw as an epidemic,” said one of those women, who was not named because the AP does not typically name people who say they are victims of sexual assault. “I realize now that was just lip service.”

Asquith's case could prove even more embarrassing for the CIA, given his long history of intelligence abroad and the audacity of his alleged conduct. Moreover, this came in June 2023, less than a month after CIA Director William Burns announced sweeping reforms designed to protect women, simplify procedures and discipline offenders more quickly. “We have to get this right,” he said.

In April, Asquith was charged with assault in Loudoun County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, after the sheriff spent months investigating a drinking party at an outside CIA office attended by at least a dozen people.

His accuser, a CIA employee, told authorities that she repeatedly rejected Asquith's advances, but he continued to move closer to her, rubbing her leg without her consent and making a series of inappropriate sexual comments as well as “grunting noises and thrusting movements.”

Asquith then “slid his hand under her skirt to her thigh several times, causing her skirt to ride up and possibly exposing her underwear,” court documents say.

The woman told investigators she slapped Asquith's hand away and stood up to leave, but he intervened as she approached the door and asked her for a “tit hug” before putting both hands around her back and rubbing his groin and chest against her. She said Asquith then “forcefully hugged her and gave her kisses all over her face and mouth without her consent.”

Asquith did not respond to repeated requests for comment. His lawyer, Jon Katz, hung up when called by AP.

“The CIA takes allegations of sexual assault and harassment extremely seriously,” the agency said in a statement. Within days of the incident, Asquith's contact with the alleged victim was restricted, and three months later he retired.

Asquith's case comes amid a flurry of activity surrounding allegations of sexual misconduct at the CIA, including ongoing state and federal criminal investigations into an undercover agent in Europe suspected of knowingly infecting at least three CIA colleagues with an incurable sexually transmitted disease. The agency has offered no explanation for why that official remains overseas.

Just a week before Asquith's trial begins this month, a federal judge in Washington will sentence another former CIA agent who drugged and sexually assaulted at least two dozen women he met on Tinder and other dating apps. Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year prison sentence for Brian Jeffrey Raymond, whom they describe as a serial offender who caused “immeasurable” harm during various overseas assignments between 2006 and 2020.

And next month, a former CIA appointee faces a second trial for the 2022 attack in the stairwell of the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Ashkan Bayatpour has admitted to wrapping a scarf around the woman's neck, but says it was meant as a joke. The woman says it was an assault in which he also tried to kiss her against her will.

“He made a face like he really wanted to hurt me,” the woman testified last year during a trial in which Bayatpour was convicted of assault. Under Virginia law, the former Navy intelligence officer is entitled to a jury trial after appealing the verdict.

Former CIA executive Lindsay Moran, author of a 2005 autobiography about her life as a spy, said sexual misconduct had long been a problem at the male-dominated agency and became more acute after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the agency's focus shifted to sending secret combat units to Afghanistan and Iraq.

“They brought their own brand of male toxicity that acted like gasoline on the old boys network that already existed,” Moran said. “National security is being used as an excuse to sweep these concerns under the rug.”

When asked why the agency's report was classified and why the problem description and case histories were kept secret, the CIA said that this decision was made by its inspector general, who conducted the investigation. It did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition, the CIA has still not complied with the AP's longstanding Freedom of Information Act request for internal records about its response to the Raymond scandal, nor has it asked for an explanation for why it took so long to uncover the abuses he documented in nearly 500 videos and photos, some of which show him groping or straddling naked, unconscious victims.

Florida Republican Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told AP that lawmakers would continue to “hold agency leaders accountable” after pushing for reforms to the CIA's reporting process for misconduct.

“How far does someone have to go before the agency steps in and says enough is enough?” Barbara Gray, a former CIA agent, told AP last year after filing an internal complaint against her manager for climbing into her hotel bed while she was sleeping during a business trip.

The CIA assured Gray that her supervisor would be “appropriately punished,” she said, but then promoted him and featured him in a career development video shown to junior officers. Gray has since resigned after her career “seemed to stall.”

“What kind of culture does the CIA foster when it promotes some of its worst offenders?” she asked. “I believe the agency is making efforts to improve its reporting processes and procedures, but my question is: What's next?”

Goodman reported from Miami. Contact AP's global investigative team at [email protected].