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CIA Mishandled Sexual Assault Allegations, Internal Review Finds

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An internal investigation into the CIA revealed that the agency failed to handle allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault within its ranks properly.

CIA Inspector General Robin Ashton said in a statement describing the results of the review that leadership had “not been wholly successful in preventing, or efficiently and effectively responding to, workplace harassment and sexual assault incidents.”

In the 648-page classified report, prompted by the Senate, Ashton made 22 recommendations to CIA Director William Burns and other agency leaders on improving how the agency handles claims of sexual assault and harassment.

Burns said in a statement that the CIA has already taken steps to make it easier for employees to report abuse and expand the agency’s capacity to investigate allegations.

“I take the issue of sexual harassment and sexual assault extremely seriously,” he said. (Read more from “CIA Mishandled Sexual Assault Allegations, Internal Review Finds” HERE)

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Democrat Accused of Ridiculing Those Concerned About Sexual Harassment in Her Office, Mocking COVID Victims

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Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California has been accused by a former staffer of denigrating people for “reporting sexual harassment” and of other demeaning remarks.

These claims come just days after text messages leaked indicating Porter may have fired a staffer over her COVID-19 diagnosis.

The Huffington Post noted in 2018 that Porter, endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Vice President Kamala Harris, was previously in an abusive relationship and subjected to sexual harassment at home.

Despite Porter’s possible personal insights into the gravity of the issue, one of her former staffers, Sasha Georgiades, indicated that the Democratic congresswoman berated at least one other staffer who had reported sexual harassment in her office, reported Fox News Digital.

A U.S. Navy veteran and former Wounded Warrior fellow for Porter, Georgiades suggested the congresswoman “ridiculed people for reporting sexual harassment.” (Read more from “Democrat Accused of Ridiculing Those Concerned About Sexual Harassment in Her Office, Mocking COVID Victims” HERE)

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FBI Sexcapades: Bureau Rocked By Illicit Office Romances, Workplace Harassment

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In April 2015, well before the advent of the #MeToo movement, a senior FBI official assured Congress the bureau had a handle on sexual misconduct In the workplace. “The FBI does not tolerate sexual harassment or sexual misconduct,” then-Associate Director Kevin L. Perkins told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. . .

The challenges have burst into full view in recent months with the release of several explosive investigative reports by the Justice Department inspector general. The latest came last Thursday, revealing an FBI assistant director violated agency policy by failing to timely report a romantic relationship with a subordinate.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz noted the romance involved more than a rules infraction, it disrupted the workplace.

“The OIG investigation also found that the Assistant Director allowed the relationship to negatively affect an appropriate and professional superior-subordinate relationship and to disrupt the workplace by interfering with the ability of other FBI employees to complete their work,” Horowitz wrote in his report. . .

Back in April, Horowitz released a stunning investigative report revealing that a senior FBI supervisor sexually harassed eight female subordinates in one of the bureau’s most egregious known cases of sexual misconduct. The supervisor was allowed to retire and was not further punished, despite findings that his colleagues found him to be a “skilled predator” who touched female employees inappropriately and solicited one for sex in a conference room. (Read more from “FBI Sexcapades: Bureau Rocked By Illicit Office Romances, Workplace Harassment” HERE)

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Andrew Cuomo Accused of Sexual Harassment by Former Adviser

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One of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s former advisers on Sunday accused the New York Democrat of sexually harassing her “for years,” saying, “I *know* I am not the only woman.”

“Yes, @NYGovCuomo sexually harassed me for years,” Lindsey Boylan tweeted Sunday morning. She did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment. . .

“Not knowing what to expect what’s the most upsetting part aside from knowing that no one would do a damn thing even when they saw it,” she continued. “No one. And I *know* I am not the only woman.” . . .

Boylan did not provide additional details about the alleged sexual harassment. She prefaced the allegations with a Saturday tweet criticizing announcements that President-elect Joe Biden is considering Cuomo as his potential attorney general.

(Read more from “Andrew Cuomo Accused of Sexual Harassment by Former Adviser” HERE)

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Why Is a Good Man so Hard to Find? Blame the War on Boys and Men

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. . .As Dr. Helen Smith put it in her 2013 book “Men on Strike,” increasing numbers of men are boycotting marriage and fatherhood — and even engagement with women at all, except via commitment-free hookup culture.

But why wouldn’t they, after 50 years (dating from the onset of first-wave feminism in the ’70s) of relentless society-wide put-downs of the male sex. . .

Men find themselves accused of being part of a “rape culture” merely for being men.

If one commits a sexual misstep — which is fairly easy to do these days, especially in a world where young female students are encouraged to liberate themselves sexually by acting like sailors on leave — they face Star Chamber-like sexual-misbehavior hearings that lack even rudimentary due-process protections and can result in expulsion. . .

Part of the point of earning money, by the way, was once to woo a woman, to make oneself a good “catch,” to support a family. If wooing is now fraught with danger and “supporting” a woman and children is deemed condescending, even oppressive, it’s no surprise that some men now see less of a need to focus on their careers. (Read more from “Why Is a Good Man so Hard to Find? Blame the War on Boys and Men” HERE)

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Members of Congress Will Now Have to Pay out of Pocket to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims

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Members of Congress will no longer be able to rely on taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment and sexual misconduct claims, thanks to legislation passed just this week.

The Huffington Post reports that the final version of the bill passed Thursday, “sailing” through the House and Senate by unanimous consent, and will be on President Donald Trump’s desk awaiting a signature by the end of this week.

“Time is finally up for members of Congress who think that they can sexually harass and get away with it. They will no longer be able to slink away with no one knowing that they have harassed. … They will pay back the U.S. Treasury,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), one of the primary sponsors of the bill told reporters on Thursday, according to Reuters. . .

Speier and bipartisan group of congressional leaders began drafting the bill last year after the “#MeToo” movement exploded across social media, ensnaring powerful men in Hollywood, in the media, and even in the federal government. Both Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) resigned their positions in Congress after past indiscretions came to light in late 2017 and early 2018.

Now, thanks to the legislation, senators and representatives will be required to pay out of pocket for settlements with former staffers and aides who accuse them of sexual misconduct and will not be allowed to rely on taxpayer money to defend themselves in lawsuits brought by former colleagues. (Read more from “Members of Congress Will Now Have to Pay out of Pocket to Settle Sexual Harassment Claims” HERE)

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Where’s #Metoo? Feminist Professors Back One of Their Own When She’s Accused of Sexual Harassment

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Somehow, when it comes to one of their own being accused of sexual harassment, some feminists discard their devotion to the #MeToo movement and blame the victim instead.

Case in point: after a famous NYU female professor, a Trump-hater who is a feminist literary theorist, was accused of sexually harassing a male former graduate student, a group of professors, including well-known feminists, leaped to her defense despite the fact that they admitted they had no knowledge about the findings of the Title IX proceedings against her.

After an 11-month Title IX investigation, Avital Ronell, 66, professor of German and Comparative Literature at New York University, was found responsible for sexually harassing Nimrod Reitman, 34, a male former graduate student and currently a visiting fellow at Harvard. As The New York Times reports, a colleague termed Ronell, “one of the very few philosopher-stars of this world,” but the investigation concluded she was “responsible for sexual harassment, both physical and verbal, to the extent that her behavior was ‘sufficiently pervasive to alter the terms and conditions of Mr. Reitman’s learning environment.’” Ronell has been suspended for 2018-2019; the Title IX report concluded she could not additionally be responsible for sexual assault, in part because there were no witnesses to the reported actions she had taken.

Reitman, who is gay, had charged that the alleged sexual harassment for three years from Ronell, who is a lesbian, had included her referring to him in emails as “my most adored one,” “Sweet cuddly Baby,” “cock-er spaniel,” and “my astounding and beautiful Nimrod.”

The Times delineates other details, including Reitman’s claims that before the school year in 2012, Ronell invited him to stay with her in Paris for a few days. (Read more from “Where’s #Metoo? Feminist Professors Back One of Their Own When She’s Accused of Sexual Harassment” HERE)

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Turns out, Influential Progressive Group Has Some Sexual Harassment Skeletons in Its Closet

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The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, had an internal sexual harassment problem, according to a report by BuzzFeed News Tuesday.

Benton Strong, the former associate director of communications for the “War Room,” is accused of sexual harassment by two previous female CAP employees, BuzzFeed News reported. One employee referred to as Mary described receiving “lewd and inappropriate text messages” from Strong, including wanting to perform oral sex on her. He discussed with male staffers whether or not black or white women are better at blow jobs and praised her body, she claimed.

Another woman claimed she reported to human resources that Strong asked women if a man had ever flashed them or masturbated in front of them. He allegedly made fun of a woman who claimed that it happened to her.

“It was like incessant. … It was like strings and strings of texts and her just being like ‘no no no,’” said Mary’s friend, another former staffer at the organization. Mary reported the instances to human resources and Strong was told not to come back to work. He was already leaving in three weeks to work for former Seattle Mayor Ed Murray who resigned in 2017 after five allegations of child sex abuse against him, according to The Washington Post.

However, Mary alleged that CAP’s management seemed frustrated that she spoke out against Strong in her exit memo. The former staffer claimed that management asked if she was “worth spending time or money on.” “All of this to say, I surely expected better out of an organization that housed a national campaign on sexual assault,” Mary wrote. (Read more from “Turns out, Influential Progressive Group Has Some Sexual Harassment Skeletons in Its Closet” HERE)

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‘God’s Not Dead’ Actor Alleges Designer Gianni Versace Sexually Harassed Him

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By Paul Bond. The actor, most famous for playing Hercules, claims the late Italian designer made an unwanted sexual advance while he was working as a model.

Actor Kevin Sorbo alleges that he was sexually harassed by the late Italian fashion magnate Gianni Versace when he was working as a model decades ago . . .

Sorbo said that in 1984, prior to his stint as the lead on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which ran for six seasons in the late 1990s, Versace approached him in Italy, where he was modeling: “He wanted to meet me because of my height. At 6-foot, 3-inches, he wanted me to do fashion shows with these 6-foot tall women.”

Sorbo says he was invited to a dinner party where he met Sophia Loren, opera star Luciano Pavarotti, Richard Gere and others. He was invited for several more dinner parties, each one with fewer attendees, until one time it was him and Versace alone, where he told Sorbo he wanted him in commercials advertising his fashion brand.

“All of a sudden, his hand goes up my leg,” says Sorbo. “Dude, you know I’m straight?” he told Versace. (Read more from “Hercules Actor Alleges Designer Gianni Versace Sexually Harassed Him” HERE)

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Five Women Accuse Journalist and ‘Game Change’ Co-Author Mark Halperin of Sexual Harassment

By Oliver Darcy. Veteran journalist Mark Halperin sexually harassed women while he was in a powerful position at ABC News, according to five women who shared their previously undisclosed accounts with CNN and others who did not experience the alleged harassment personally, but were aware of it.

“During this period, I did pursue relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me,” Halperin said in a statement to CNN Wednesday night. “I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I’m going to take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation.”

Widely considered to be one of the preeminent political journalists, Halperin, 52, has, among other career highlights, been political director at ABC News; co-authored the bestselling book “Game Change,” which was made into an HBO movie starring Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin; and anchored a television show on Bloomberg TV. He currently serves as an analyst for NBC News, making frequent appearances on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and is featured in Showtime’s “The Circus,” a show that chronicled the 2016 campaign cycle and the early days of the Trump presidency, and has a project in development with HBO, which, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner. (Read more from “Five Women Accuse Journalist and ‘Game Change’ Co-Author Mark Halperin of Sexual Harassment” HERE)

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Union Activists Hired ‘Serial Sexual Harasser’ to Condemn Sexual Harassment

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The liberal activist ousted from his own firm in the wake of sexual abuse allegations once headed a public pressure campaign against sexual harassment.

Trevor Fitzgibbon was forced to shut down the public relations firm he founded after a group of former female employees went public with allegations of repeated incidences of sexual harassment and abuse. Fitzgibbon Media led a public relations blitz from the Restaurant Opportunities Center-United, a union-funded group that has been active in pushes for dramatic minimum wage hikes. The organization has argued that the minimum wage should be raised because workers who rely on tips are more likely to be subject to flirting and other forms of sexual harassment on the job.

The co-founder of the group, Saru Jayaraman, alleged that 90 percent of all restaurant workers face sexual harassment, telling USA Today that “women who have to live off of tips are subjected to the worst kind of sexual harassment.” Women who had to live off paychecks signed by Fitzgibbon say that they also had to deal with the worst kind of sexual harassment.

“Staffers reported over a half dozen incidents of sexual harassment and at least two involving sexual assault committed by Trevor FitzGibbon against his own employees,” a group of employees told the Huffington Post, which broke the story. The firm folded within a day of publication.

Fitzgibbon had previously been accused of sexual harassment at a previous job, according to the report. The story sparked public outcry from the leftwing because Fitzgibbon retained the radical abortionist group NARAL as a client. (Read more from “Union Activists Hired ‘Serial Sexual Harasser’ to Condemn Sexual Harassment” HERE)

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