This undated photo shows the sign for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Coast Guard nondisclosure agreements should not stop service members from cooperating with investigations into the sexual misconduct scandal at its academy after some senators claimed the agreements have hindered them from attaining information, service leaders said in a memo reinforcing the policy. (David M. Santos/U.S. Coast Guard )
Coast Guard nondisclosure agreements should not stop service members from cooperating with investigations into the sexual misconduct scandal at its academy after some senators claimed the agreements have hindered them from attaining information, service leaders said in a memo reinforcing the policy.
Adm. Steven Poulin, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, sent the all-Coast Guard message April 18 after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claimed the agreements had been used to block sexual assault victims from speaking to anyone, including Congress, about their assault or related investigations.
“Current and former members and employees may have either signed nondisclosure agreements or been verbally advised not to disclose or discuss certain sensitive or confidential matters. Generally, these warnings would have been given to protect individual privacy, integrity of ongoing investigations, or other sensitive material,” Poulin wrote.
“The intent” has not been, and is not, to restrict any individual’s right to make protected disclosures to Congress, the Office of the Inspector General, Office of Special Counsel, or to make internal reports within the chain of command, the Coast Guard Investigative Service, or other authorities responsible for investigating or processing complaints of alleged violations, he wrote to the force.
Cruz on Wednesday thanked the Coast Guard for quickly responding to a letter that he sent April 8 alerting Adm. Linda Fagan, commandant of the Coast Guard, to his discovery.
“Within a day of my letter alerting the commandant to the issue, the Coast Guard ended this indefensible practice. The Coast Guard has now notified every Coast Guardsman that NDAs may not silence victims of sexual assaults, nor do they prevent anyone else from blowing the whistle to Congress or the inspector general,” Cruz said during an executive session of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
The senator said the agreements were stalling the committee’s investigations into the cover-up of Operation Fouled Anchor — a 2020 report based on a six-year inquiry into the handling of sexual assault and sexual harassment at the academy. Coast Guard officials only alerted Congress about the report’s existence after CNN uncovered it.
“One reason that the Coast Guard may have been successful in hiding the Operation Fouled Anchor investigation from Congress and the public for so long — was that it had at least some of those involved in Operation Fouled Anchor either sign an NDA or orally agree to an NDA, forbidding them from speaking about the investigations,” Cruz wrote to Fagan.
Cruz also sent his concerns to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, Government Accountability Office, and the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is also investigating the cover-up of Operation Fouled Anchor. Subcommittee leaders wrote Wednesday to Fagan to ask her to testify May 21 about Fouled Anchor and explain the Coast Guard’s failure so far to produce all documents and information requested.
“Simply put, the Coast Guard’s lack of responsiveness stands in stark contrast to your previous commitments to be fully transparent with Congress and the American people,” wrote Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the subcommittee chairman, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the subcommittee.
The senators, who began their inquiry in September, gave the Coast Guard until May 15 to supply all records without redactions.
“Should the Coast Guard continue to impede the subcommittee’s inquiry by withholding records or including inappropriate redactions that hinder our legitimate congressional oversight, the subcommittee will have no choice but to use compulsory process to ensure compliance,” they wrote.
The Coast Guard said in December that Fagan “is committed to being open and transparent with Congress” and would testify on Fouled Anchor as she has done in the past.
