DOJ investigating sexual abuse in US Olympic organizations: report

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly conducting several investigations into U.S. Olympic sports organizations over potential sexual abuse and financial misconduct.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the department's money-laundering and child-exploitation units and the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., sent grand jury subpoenas to entities including the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and its U.S. Center for SafeSport, which handles abuse reports.

Prosecutors as well as investigators from the Internal Revenue Service have spoken with possible witnesses about alleged misconduct in entities including USA Gymnastics and USA Taekwondo, the newspaper reported. read more »

Airborne sexual assault is a problem; airlines can and should fix it

Airlines must figure out how to better help passengers and law enforcement.

When a creep makes lewd gestures at a stoplight, you can ignore him and speed away. When a shopper gets too friendly in the check-out line, you can alert a store employee or walk out the door. But what if someone is inappropriate on an airplane? At 30,000 feet, there's no escape and, too often, no one to come to your defense.

Last year, the Association of Flight Attendants, a trade union representing 50,000 members at 20 airlines, conducted two surveys about this problem. The results were as surprising as they were disgusting. Sixty-eight percent of flight attendants have experienced sexual harassment. Twenty percent have received reports of passenger-on-passenger sexual assault during a flight. (To emphasize, that’s assault, not just offensive language or leering looks.) And almost 70% said they have not noticed any employer efforts to address this issue over the past year. Taylor Garland, a spokesperson for the association articulated our surprise: “It was pretty astounding to see those numbers.” read more »

The memo from Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer is a roadmap for how accused predators stay in power

In 2017, immediately after the New York Times published its first allegations against him, Harvey Weinstein was prepared to go on the offensive. In an attempt to salvage his career and reputation, he contacted his lawyer at the time, Lisa Bloom, who crafted a memo about the tactics Weinstein could use to get his life back on track (Bloom quit just a few days after Weinstein retained her).

The memo was recently made public for the first time as part of early buzz for She Said, the forthcoming book by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the reporters who first broke the story of Weinstein’s sexual abuses at the New York Times.

It reads like a dirtbag’s handbook, a step-by-step guide for how people in powerful positions can quiet their accusers and carry on with their “business.” read more »