ICYMI: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Releases Report & Supporting Documents in Coast Guard Sexual Misconduct Cover-Up

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) Chair Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ranking Member Ron Johnson (R-WI) released a bipartisan interim staff report on their inquiry into the Coast Guard’s efforts to conceal the investigation into mishandled cases of sexual assault and harassment at the Coast Guard Academy.

The report, Coast Guard Efforts to Conceal the Operation Fouled Anchor Investigation from Congress and the Public, includes several newly released documents, among which is an email explaining that then-Commandant Admiral Schultz chose not to affirmatively disclose Operation Fouled Anchor to either Congress or the public based on the continuing nature of the investigation.  This email was sent the same day that a briefing by the Coast Guard to Congress on Operation Fouled Anchor was scheduled to take place – effectively engaging in a cover-up. Additional evidence further suggests that the Coast Guard took affirmative steps to remove references to Operation Fouled Anchor from internal Coast Guard communications which Congress had requested as part of an inquiry into harassment, bullying, and retaliation at the Coast Guard Academy.

“This report provides additional evidence that the highest levels of Coast Guard leadership engaged in a purposeful and long-term cover-up of widespread sexual assault and harassment allegations at the Coast Guard Academy,” Blumenthal and Johnson said. “The survivors of this misconduct deserve an explanation, and so does the public.”

Background on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Inquiry into the Coast Guard

In September 2023, PSI opened a bipartisan inquiry into the Coast Guard’s internal review of sexual assault and harassment cases that occurred between 1990 and 2006, which was called Operation Fouled Anchor. The Subcommittee’s inquiry has focused on the Coast Guard’s original mishandling of these cases and the Coast Guard’s failure to reveal the conclusion of Operation Fouled Anchor, and its associated report, to Congress and the public. The Subcommittee is also examining the ways in which the Coast Guard currently handles reports of sexual assault and harassment.

Last December, the Subcommittee held a hearing in which four current and former Coast Guard Academy cadets testified about the Coast Guard’s mishandling of their cases.

In February 2024, the Subcommittee released additional documents showing that the Coast Guard was concerned that, should Operation Fouled Anchor be made public, it would “risk the initiation of comprehensive Congressional investigations, hearings, and media interest” and that “[t]he rates of sexual assault reporting have not appreciably changed, calling into question impact of Coast Guard actions taken over the past decade to change CGA climate/etc.” Handwritten notes on one document, which according to the Coast Guard were made by then-Vice Commandant Admiral Charles Ray, state, “Problem is one of the past... .”

In June, Admiral Linda Fagan, Commandant of the Coast Guard, testified before PSI.  In August, Blumenthal released a majority staff report highlighting firsthand accounts of Coast Guard enlisted personnel, officers, and Coast Guard Academy cadets who have experienced sexual assault, harassment, and other forms of misconduct ahead of a field hearing in New London, Connecticut, featuring testimony from two current and three former members of the Coast Guard.

The full text of the Senators’ initial letter to the Coast Guard is available here. The letter from December 2023 is available here. Video of the Subcommittee’s hearing in December featuring testimony from survivors can be viewed here. The Subcommittee’s February 2024 letter is available here. The Subcommittee’s hearing invitation to Admiral Linda Fagan is available here, and the video of Admiral Fagan’s testimony in June 2024 is available here. The majority staff report highlighting the testimony of survivors of sexual assault and harassment in the Coast Guard is available here. Video of the field hearing in New London is available here.

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