In a secluded stairwell at CIA headquarters last year, trainee officer Ashkan Bayatpur walked up behind a colleague, wrapped a scarf around her neck and tried to kiss her on the mouth as he spoke briefly .
“This one has a lot of uses,” the woman recalled him saying. “That’s what I want to do to you.”
Bayatpur was convicted on Wednesday of state misdemeanor charges such as assault and battery, a case notable for breaking through the CIA’s veil of intense secrecy and unfolding in public court, fueling concerns over sexual misconduct liquidation.
In recent months, at least two dozen women have come forward to complain about abuse within the CIA, tell the authorities and congress Not just about sexual assault, unwanted touching and coercion, but also a campaign by spy agencies to silence them, warning it could ruin their careers and even jeopardize national security.
“There are harassers everywhere, and bosses are trying to cover them up,” said Kristin Alden, a Washington attorney who represents some of the women who filed complaints. “But the overall nature of intelligence work — the culture of secrecy and people working under aliases — does exacerbate the chilling effect of retaliation and isolation felt by victims.”
Details of the July 13, 2022 stairwell attack in Bayatpur had not been previously reported, but were confirmed by The Associated Press through court records and several people familiar with the matter spoke on condition of anonymity.
The 39-year-old Alabama native and former U.S. Navy intelligence officer has been on the job for more than a year since the woman reported the attack to the CIA and nine years since reporting it to the FBI and local law enforcement. It’s been a month.
Several of the woman’s female associates took part in Wednesday’s proceedings before Fairfax Magistrates’ Court Judge Dipty Pidikitti-Smith found Bayatpur guilty, sentenced him to six months’ probation and ordered him to hand over the crime. After unloading all guns and moving away from the woman, they became emotional. His lawyers have appealed.
The CIA declined to say whether Bayatpur had been disciplined internally and said it would not comment on whether individuals had ties to the agency.
“This guilty verdict was delivered in the context of the CIA, not because of the CIA,” said Kevin Carroll, an attorney for the Bayatpur plaintiffs. The AP did not name the alleged sexual abuse or the family. Identity of victims of violence.
“It’s a huge problem that the agency hasn’t started to address,” he added. “In this environment, a lot of things are kept secret, which attracts some bad actors.”
The total number of sexual harassment and discrimination complaints filed with the CIA’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity this year has doubled from last year, detailing 76 separate incidents.
Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia and Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Democrats and Republicans who oversee the CIA, have called for an oversight investigation and are considering hearings on why the agency has long failed to Allowing women to grow within their ranks. Of 290 employment-related complaints since 2018, the agency substantiated just one gender-based case.
The congressional scrutiny prompted CIA Director William Burns in May to launch a series of reforms to streamline claims, support victims and more quickly bring to justice those behind wrongdoing. These include hiring a psychologist with a passion for advocating for victims to lead the agency’s fledgling Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and replacing the leadership of the CIA office, where many women say they are discouraged file a complaint.
CIA spokeswoman Tammy Cooperman Thorpe said: “Our officers should take great care to ensure they have a safe and secure workplace.”
Congressional aides told The Associated Press that they have interviewed or reached out to at least two dozen female CIA employees this year. They described misconduct ranging from lewd comments about sexual fantasies during after-get off work happy hours to a case in which a senior manager showed up at a subordinate’s home with a gun at night to demand sex. Some of the incidents dated back years and occurred while officials were on dangerous covert missions overseas, while others took place at CIA headquarters.
Lawyers for some of the women said one of the women claimed she was given alcohol on her first day in her new position and then sexually assaulted by the most senior officials. Another claimed her supervisor told her on her first day at work that they were “soul mates” and subsequently texted a suggestive tryst.
Washington attorney Kevin Byrnes said many women were told they could not identify their assailants, seek help from law enforcement or even seek help from law enforcement because of national security concerns or the risk of leaking unspecified classified information. Talk to the family about their allegations.
“The CIA clearly believes it is exempt from federal law,” Burns said.
Other previously unknown cases of assault and harassment emerged in dozens of appeals by CIA employees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces laws prohibiting gender-based harassment in the workplace.
They included the case of a female contractor who claimed she was subjected to a “cycle of pressure and manipulation” by a CIA manager who offered her gifts, harassed her by email and threatened to expose her to her partner. their relationship.
In another case, a female CIA employee repeatedly stated that one of her colleagues discuss bondage, sent her nude photos of women and threatened to have her security credentials revoked unless she had sex with him. In unwelcome advance, co-workers at work try to ‘tip’ plane feed her spaghettiHe spilled something on her, then offered to clean it off the front of her shirt, trying to touch her breasts. “
“There is strength in numbers,” said Ally Coll, a CUNY law professor and founder of the Purple Method, a nonprofit that advises Congress on how to strengthen federal agencies’ anti-harassment rules. “When you learn that someone is being abused, you’re more likely to report it and feel a responsibility to help.”
Before Bayatpur, the only CIA employee in recent years to be publicly accused of sexual misconduct was a former officer fluent in Spanish and Mandarin who federal investigators have dubbed a “serial sex offender.” .
Brian Jeffrey Raymond is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting at least 20 comatose women during the 14 years he worked for the agency in multiple countries. But Raymond wasn’t discovered until 2020, when a naked woman he met on Tinder was found screaming for help from the balcony of his government-rented apartment in Mexico City.
When the FBI began investigating, they found hundreds of photos and videos of 24 unconscious naked women on his smartphone. In some photos, Raymond can be seen opening the women’s eyelids, touching them and straddling them.
After Raymond withdrew his guilty plea to the lesser crimes, a federal grand jury in Washington this year returned a 25-count replacement indictment alleging sexual abuse, coercion and transportation of obscene material.
In Bayatpur’s case, the woman told investigators that when she yelled at him to stop and tried to run away, he tried a second time to wrap a scarf around her before grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the He kissed her cheek. Then he texted her: “Are you okay?”
Bayatpur’s lawyer Stuart Sears admitted his client wrapped a scarf around a woman in the stairwell, but insisted his actions were a joke during a 40-minute walk together. He said the incident was “a joke that didn’t work out as intended”.
The victim reported the incident to the CIA within 48 hours, only to feel re-victimized when the CIA told her not to go to law enforcement or even tell her family. She said in an affidavit that as a result of the attack, she took medication for PTSD, had suicidal thoughts and worried about encountering her attacker in the cafeteria where she worked.
Carroll, the woman’s lawyer, said: “It is completely unacceptable on every level that this individual continues to be associated with an institution that I have come to know.”
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