(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The DOJ’s Inspector General published a scathing report Wednesday, finding that a former FBI assistant special agent in charge, or ASAC, sexually harassed an FBI Special Agent (SA), made racially insensitive remarks to an FBI investigative analyst, and then threatened his subordinates with retaliation if they complained.
The DOJ-OIG said it opened an investigation into the ASAC after receiving reports that he sexually harassed an agent, made racially insensitive remarks, and “made misrepresentations to supervisors about a subordinate’s willingness to volunteer for a temporary assignment.”
After the inspector general began the investigation, the FBI provided additional information indicating that the ASAC bullied subordinates by using intimidating language and tactics with them, the DOJ-OIG report said. According to the DOJ-OIG, the FBI ASAC retired during the investigation into his misconduct.
“The OIG investigation substantiated the allegations that the ASAC sexually harassed the SA, made racially insensitive remarks to the IA, made misrepresentations to supervisors, bullied subordinates, threatened subordinates with retaliation if they made complaints about management, and lacked candor under oath in an OIG interview—all in violation of FBI and DOJ policy,” the DOJ-OIG report concluded.
DOJ Inspector General released a pretty scathing report today on an ex-FBI ASAC who sounds like a real jerk. pic.twitter.com/6nqPvRKJ80
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) September 11, 2024
Reports from the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General in recent years suggest that the FBI has a widespread culture of sexual misconduct.
Most recently, Headline USA exclusively obtained a DOJ-OIG report about Jeffrey Sallet, the former third-in-charge at the FBI. According to that report, Sallet made lewd comments during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising, and he invited a colleague to join the “harem” of his Texas oil billionaire friend—along with other instances of misconduct.
Like the unnamed ASAC in Wednesday’s report, Sallet retired amidst the DOJ-OIG investigation.
According to a 2020 Associated Press article entitled, ‘Under the rug:’ Sexual misconduct shakes FBI’s senior ranks, the last time the OIG did an extensive probe of sexual misconduct within the FBI, it tallied 343 “offenses” from fiscal years 2009 to 2012, including three instances of “videotaping undressed women without consent.”
That AP investigation identified at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials over the past five years, including two new claims brought by women who say they were sexually assaulted by ranking agents.
“Each of the accused FBI officials appears to have avoided discipline, the AP found, and several were quietly transferred or retired, keeping their full pensions and benefits even when probes substantiated the sexual misconduct claims against them,” the AP reported in December 2020.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
