Report alleges Coast Guard leaders kept sexual assault investigation secret

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Former top Coast Guard officials hid a yearslong investigation into sexual assault and harassment at the service's academy from both Congress and the public after leaders debated the fallout from a potential disclosure, according to a U.S. Senate committee report released Friday.

Coast Guard officials also took steps to remove references to the investigation, named Operation Fouled Anchor, from records submitted to Congress, according to the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The report followed similar findings released last week by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

“Today’s report confirms and provides additional powerful evidence that the cover-up of sexual assault in the Coast Guard was deliberate and purposeful and longstanding,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the committee, said Friday. “The public deserves an explanation. So do the survivors.”

A Coast Guard spokesperson released a statement Friday evening.

“The Coast Guard is keenly aware of and is aggressively responding to the unacceptable activities underpinning the report — namely sexual assault and sexual harassment,” the statement said. “The Coast Guard is working proactively to prevent and reduce these devastating crimes, secure justice for survivors and provide the care and support victims need and deserve.”

Messages to officials at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, were not immediately returned Friday. The Coast Guard previously apologized for how it handled sexual misconduct complaints and said it has made numerous improvements.

Operation Fouled Anchor ran from 2014 to 2019. The investigation reviewed more than 100 allegations of sexual assault at the academy made from the early 1990s to 2006 and how they were handled. Coast Guard officials, however, did not fully disclose its existence to Congress or the public until last year. The existence of the investigation was first reported by CNN.

The investigation found that dozens of sexual assault and harassment cases involving academy cadets had been mishandled by the school, including the prevention of some perpetrators from being prosecuted.

When the investigation did become public, it sparked calls for reform and accountability for offenders and those who protected them. They also resulted in multiple government investigations and formal complaints by more than 20 former cadets who said they were sexually assaulted.

Friday's subcommittee report alleged that in 2018, Admiral Karl Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant at the time, made the decision to not publicly disclose Operation Foul Anchor, on the grounds that the investigation was not yet complete.

That decision came after the vice commandant at the time, Admiral Charles Ray, who like Schultz has since retired, discussed the “pros and cons of going external.”

The subcommittee said a handwritten note by Ray said the pros of disclosing the investigation publicly included “rip the band-aid off,” being proactive and purging “cultural guilt.” The cons, Ray wrote, according to the congressional panel, included investigations without end and revictimizing people. Ray also wrote the “problem is one of the past,” according to the subcommittee.

Other Coast Guard officials presented three scenarios for how to handle Operation Fouled Anchor, with a recommendation to only discuss it if asked by Congress, the subcommittee said.

The officials recommended against fully notifying Congress, writing that “any affirmative Congressional or external communication, especially if briefed under a singular investigatory moniker with a colorful title, vice separate investigations, will risk the initiation of comprehensive Congressional investigations, hearings, and media interest,” according to the subcommittee.

Phone and text messages left at a listing for Schultz were not immediately returned Friday. Contact information for Ray could not immediately be found.

Schultz told CNN in an interview last week that he withheld the investigation from Congress because he was concerned elected officials would not protect victims' privacy. He also denied allegations of a coverup and said he believed there was no legal obligation to give the investigation report to Congress.

Schultz and Ray became the top leaders of the Coast Guard in 2018. The previous leaders told the subcommittee that they had intended to disclose Operation Foul Anchor to Congress and the public.

Friday's report also said the Coast Guard drafted at least 17 versions of a final report for Operation Foul Anchor. The longest, at 26 pages, detailed assaults at the academy. The final version was six pages and omitted much of the information in earlier drafts, the subcommittee said.

The subcommittee's report also accused Coast Guard officials of repeatedly failing to comply with the panel's investigation including by failing to produce documents, “aggressively” redacting documents and erroneously claiming some documents were privileged.

The Coast Guard responded that it has undergone an extensive effort to provide requested documents to Congress, including examining more than 1.8 million pages of emails, and has complied with congressional requests for information “to the fullest extent.”

The Senate subcommittee said its investigation is continuing.

“With the decision to keep Operation Fouled Anchor from Congress and the public, the Coast Guard failed itself and its members who survived sexual assault and sexual harassment during their time in the service,” the subcommittee's report said.

FILE - The United States Coast Guard Academy is seen, Sept. 14, 2020, in New London, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)