Image Credit: Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images 
A CIA trainee officer was convicted of sexually assaulting his female colleague in a stairwell, prompting more women to come forward alleging a culture of abuses and coverups at the agency.
Ashkan Bayatpour was convicted Monday of attacking her at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia in July 2022 and given 6 months probation and was ordered to surrender his firearms and stay away from the victim.
Bayatpour, a 39-year-old former Navy intelligence officer, was found guilty of a state misdemeanor charge of assault and battery for sneaking up behind the woman in the stairwell and wrapping a scarf around her neck to pull her in for a kiss.
“There are many uses for this,” he told her. “This is what I want to do to you.”
The victim reported the incident to CIA leadership within 48 hours, but was told to stay silent, and she claims she suffers from PTSD and suicidal thoughts, and lives in fear of bumping into Bayatpour in the cafeteria as a result of the attack.
But Bayatpour’s lawyer Stuart Sears insisted the incident was just “a joke that didn’t land the way it was intended to land.”
Kevin Carroll, the lawyer for Bayatpour’s victim, blasted the CIA’s attempts to prevent this incident and others from coming to light.
“The CIA tried to prevent her truthful cooperation with law enforcement, but she was too honest and tough,” said Carroll.
“The Agency needs to begin to help, and not continue to hinder, its many sex assault victims who are now seeking justice through the legal system.”
“This guilty verdict came despite and not because of the CIA,” Carroll said. “It is a gigantic problem that the agency has not yet begun to get its arms around. It’s an environment where a lot of stuff is secret, and that attracts some bad actors.”
Bayatpour reportedly remained in his role for over a year since the woman reported his assault to the CIA, and nine months since she informed FBI and local law enforcement.
Carroll also claimed that perverts in the agency represent a “counterintelligence threat” due to their blackmail potential by adversaries.
“CIA also needs to root out violent sexual predators from the Agency, who are counterintelligence threats to the United States, because they can be blackmailed by adversary foreign security services based their gross criminal misconduct,” he said.
More women have come forward alleging the CIA is shielding other perverts in the agency who’ve sexually harassed or assaulted them.
From The Daily Mail:
At least two-dozen women have come forward to complain about sexual assaults, unwanted touching and coercion.
One even claimed that a senior manager showed up to a subordinate’s home and demanded sex while brandishing a gun.
The women allege they are fighting against a campaign set up by the spy agency to silence them – warning that it would wreck their careers and endanger national security.
…
In another case, a female CIA employee said one of her co-workers repeatedly discussed bondage , sent her nude photos of women and threatened to get her security credentials revoked unless she had sex with him.
Among the unwanted advances was an attempt at work by the co-worker to ‘airplane feed her pasta, which he spilled on her and then offered to clean up from the front of her shirt in an attempt to feel her breast.’
CIA spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp released the following statement after Bayatpour’s conviction:
“Our officers deserve no less than our laser sharp focus on ensuring they have a safe and secure work environment,” she said.
Everybody knows the CIA means what it says *wink*.