On Thursday, Fagan announced the launch of an “accountability and transparency” review of her agency in the wake of revelations of systemic mishandling of sexual assault allegations at the US Coast Guard Academy.ĭubbed Operation Fouled Anchor, the investigation was triggered in 2014 when an academy graduate reported that her allegation of rape from years earlier had never been investigated. When Cantwell followed up on that comment, Fagan suggested the culture has improved since the 1980s and clarified, saying, “we do not have a culture of assault in the Coast Guard… there was a legacy of mishandling of reports of sexual assault at the Coast Guard Academy in the 80s.” It is not the workforce that that I want or expect, and we have got work to do,” Fagan said. “It started as legacy sexual assaults that were mishandled at the Coast Guard Academy,” Fagan said, “but it is clear to me that we’ve got a culture in areas that is permissive and allows sexual assaults, harassment, bullying, retaliation, that’s inconsistent with our core values. She described a “pattern of failure” to address those reports and said there was a “lack of clarity of leadership with regard to how those reports needed to be handled.” CNN had been set to interview Fagan directly Thursday, but the interview was cancelled following the hearing.įagan faulted prior leaders within her agency for failing to properly handle sexual assault complaints at the academy. “We failed the committee when we did not disclose in 2020,” said Fagan, the Coast Guard’s first female commandant who took the helm in 2022 after the operation came to a close. The head of the US Coast Guard, Commandant Linda Fagan, told senators that she didn’t know why the Coast Guard did not previously disclose the probe into sexual assaults at the academy to Congress.įagan said she only learned of the “totality” of the so-called Fouled Anchor probe when CNN inquired about the issue this past spring, though she had heard of it because she had previously taken steps to remove a commanding officer caught up in the investigation. Andrew Harnik/APĬNN uncovered a damning, secret investigation into sexual assault at the US Coast Guard Academy.
Hats are displayed on a table during the commencement for the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, on May 19, 2021. “This is exactly the type of gross mismanagement congressional oversight is designed to protect against,” said Sen. While Thursday’s pre-scheduled hearing was technically intended to focus on the agency’s budget, senators on both sides of the aisle repeatedly chastised the agency for what they described as a devastating coverup by the agency of nearly two decades of mishandling sexual assault reports made to academy leaders.
“We cannot have the media be the policeman on the beat.” Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee said at a subcomittee hearing Thursday. We cannot tolerate the fact that the Coast Guard did not notify us this,” Sen. “It is heartbreaking, maddening, frustrating and untolerable where we are today with this sexual abuse and assault within the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard only briefed members of Congress in June about the secret investigation after inquiries from CNN. A 2019 draft report stemming from the probe, exclusively reviewed by CNN, concluded academy leadership had been more concerned about reputation than victims’ wellbeing.ĭespite findings of wrongdoing, the probe was quietly closed. The chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee called for an inspector general investigation into the US Coast Guard in the wake of revelations of systemic mishandling of sexual assault allegations at the US Coast Guard Academy.ĬNN recently revealed that Coast Guard leadership for years kept confidential the findings of a probe that revealed a history of rapes, assaults and other serious misconduct at the US Coast Guard Academy from the late 1980s to 2006 that officials ignored or even covered up.
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