CIA veteran who drugged and sexually abused dozens of women is sentenced to 30 years in prison

WASHINGTON — A longtime CIA agent who drugged, photographed and sexually assaulted more than two dozen women on assignments around the world was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday after an emotional hearing in which victims described being deceived by a man who seemed kind, educated and part of an agency “designed to protect the world from evil.”

Brian Jeffrey Raymond, with a graying beard and orange prison jumpsuit, sat dejected as he heard his sentence for one of the worst cases of misconduct in CIA history, which he had documented in his own library of over 500 photographs, some of which showed him straddling and groping his naked, unconscious victims.

“It's safe to say he's a sex offender,” said Chief U.S. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly as she imposed the full sentence prosecutors had sought. “They'll have some time to think about that.”

Prosecutors say the assaults on 48-year-old Raymond date back to 2006 and span his entire career in Mexico, Peru and other countries, all following a similar pattern:

He lured women he met through Tinder and other dating apps to his government-rented apartment and drugged them while serving them wine and snacks. Once they were unconscious, he spent hours posing their naked bodies before photographing and abusing them, sometimes prying open their eyelids and putting his fingers in their mouths.

One by one, about a dozen of Raymond's victims, identified in court only by numbers, told how the longtime spy turned their lives upside down. Some said they only learned what had happened when the FBI showed them the photos showing them being attacked unconscious.

“My body looks like a corpse on his bed,” one victim said of the photos. “Now I have these nightmares where I see myself dead.”

One described a nervous breakdown. Another spoke of recurring trances that led her to run red lights while driving. Many said their self-confidence and trust in others had been destroyed forever.

“I hope the consequences of his actions haunt him for the rest of his life,” said one of the women who, like others, stared down Raymond as they walked away from the podium.

In a statement, Raymond said he told the judge he had spent countless hours thinking about his “downward spiral.”

“It betrayed everything I stand for and I know no apology will ever be enough,” he said. “There are no words to describe how sorry I am. That's not who I am, and yet that's who I became.”

Raymond's conviction comes amid a review of sexual misconduct at the CIA. The Associated Press reported last week that another veteran CIA agent is facing charges in Virginia for allegedly reaching up a colleague's skirt and forcibly kissing her during a drinking party in the office.

Another former CIA employee – an officer cadet – will go on trial next month on charges of attacking a woman wearing a headscarf in the stairwell of the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. That case encouraged about two dozen women to come forward to authorities and Congress with accounts of sexual assault, unwanted touching and alleged CIA efforts to silence them.

And yet the full extent of sexual misconduct at the CIA in the name of national security remains a secret, even after a recently released 648-page internal audit report found systematic deficiencies in the agency's handling of such complaints.

“The secret nature of the activities allowed the CIA to hide many things,” said Liza Mundy, author of “Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA.” The male-dominated CIA has long been a hotbed of egregious sexual misconduct. “For decades, men at the top had free rein.”

The CIA has publicly condemned Raymond's crimes and implemented comprehensive reforms to ensure the safety of women, simplify procedures, and enable faster discipline of perpetrators.

“There is absolutely no excuse for Mr. Raymond's reprehensible, appalling conduct,” the agency said Wednesday. “As this case demonstrates, we are committed to working with law enforcement.”

Yet nearly four years after his arrest, Raymond's case remains secret. Even after Raymond pleaded guilty late last year, prosecutors sidestepped the exact nature of his work and refused to release a full list of countries where he abused women.

Still, they provided a stark portrayal of Raymond's behavior, calling him a “serial offender” whose attacks increased over time and became “almost frantic” during his final CIA posting in Mexico City, where he was discovered in 2020 when a naked woman screamed for help from the balcony of his apartment.

U.S. authorities searched Raymond's electronic devices and began identifying the victims he listed by name and physical characteristics. All of the victims described suffering some form of memory loss during the time they spent with him.

One victim said Raymond seemed like a “perfect gentleman” when they met in Mexico in 2020 and only remembered them kissing. Without the woman's knowledge, he took 35 videos and close-ups of her breasts and genitals after she blacked out.

“The defendant's manipulation often resulted in the women blaming themselves for their powerlessness, feeling ashamed and apologizing to the defendant,” prosecutors wrote in a court document. “He was more than willing to manipulate the women, often tricking them into believing they had drunk too much and that, despite their instincts, nothing had happened.”

Raymond, a San Diego native and former White House intern who is fluent in Spanish and Mandarin, eventually pleaded guilty to four of 25 federal charges, including sexual abuse, coercion and transportation of obscene material. As part of his sentence, the judge ordered him to pay $10,000 to each of his 28 victims.

Raymond's lawyers had asked for a mitigation of their claims because his “quasi-military” work at the CIA in the years after 9/11 had become a breeding ground for emotional callousness and “objectification of other people,” which had enabled him to hunt women for years.

“While he worked tirelessly in his government job, he ignored his own need for help and over time began to isolate himself, detach himself from human feelings and become emotionally numb,” defense attorney Howard Katzoff wrote in a court document.

“He was an invaluable government employee, but it took its toll and led him down a dark path.”

The story continues