Lawmakers seek answers in secret 'shameful, disgraceful' Coast Guard sexual assault probe: CNN

08 August 2023

Lawmakers are seeking answers from the United States Coast Guard regarding a years-long, suppressed rape and sexual assault probe launched within the Coast Guard Academy beginning nearly a decade ago, CNN exclusively reports.

Per CNN, "Internal records and interviews with those involved in" Operation Fouled Anchor prove then-Commandant Karl L. "Schultz and his second-in-command, Admiral Charles W. Ray, failed to act on plans to share the findings with Congress and the public, and maintained a veil of secrecy around the investigation."

According to the report, "Schultz's silence on Fouled Anchor stands in contrast with public statements he made when he led the agency about the importance of preventing sexual assault. He called such crimes 'a direct attack on our people' in a 2018 video and met with Coast Guard Academy cadets in 2020 to discuss the issue."

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called the decision to suppress findings from the investigation "probably the most shameful, disgraceful incident of cover-up of sexual assault that I have seen in the United States military ever," while a congressional aide told the news outlet "it seems Schultz and Ray made a 'political calculation' to withhold the information."

The aide emphasized, "They knew. They read it. They signed off on it. It seems like the most logical reason is that they didn't want to have controversy under their leadership."

CNN reports:

By keeping the investigation secret, the Coast Guard avoided further scrutiny of how alleged rapists and other attackers were not held accountable at the academy. In the wake of CNN's reporting and the congressional outrage that followed, other alleged victims have reached out to CNN and congressional offices, saying they too were assaulted as cadets at the academy, but were not included in the Fouled Anchor investigation. The victims, some who attended as recently as a few years ago, said their alleged assaults drastically affected their mental health, personal relationships and careers, while some of their attackers went on to have impressive careers in the Coast Guard and other military agencies.

Linda Fagan, who now serves as commandant after Shultz retired in 2022, according to the report, "has apologized to the victims of the sexual assaults and pledged to be more transparent about the agency's problems.

CNN notes Fagan said during a recent congressional hearing, "Just like on a ship when you have rust, we've got pockets of rust that need to be eliminated from the organization."

Similarly, the agency's former chief counsel Melissa Bert — the first woman in the role — said "At some point it was not the top thing on somebody's mind. There is so so much going on in the Coast Guard."

She contended that "a lack of transparency does not equate to a lack of action or responsiveness," arguing "While it should have been a huge deal to let people know that the Coast Guard had responded, it just went with the past. There is always a new problem every day."

Admiral Paul Zukunft, who proceeded Schultz and launched Operation Fouled Anchor in 2014, told CNN he originally "planned to issue a public apology to the victims the investigation identified," but the news outlet reports "he retired before the probe was over," saying "he briefed Schultz on the matter."

Zukunft said he was 'incredulous' that officials didn't brief Congress and publicize the findings after the final report was issued in January of 2020."

The probe was a "big deal," the former commandant added, "because sexual assault victims faced 'betrayal up the chain of command. At a bare minimum, we owed it to these victims to provide some sense of emotional closure. We can't just sweep it under the carpet. I'm a big believer that bad news, like dead fish, don't get better with time."

CNN's full report is available at this link.

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