The official, who had retired by that point, harassed five women under his chain of command, the inspector general announced. One woman reported that she was not only harassed, but also sexually assaulted. Another woman reported that she was pressured into having sex to get a promotion.
Few details were available at the time. The inspector general's summary of the investigation was barely two pages. The official had worked in the Office of Justice Programs, an arm of the Justice Department that partners with federal, state, and local law enforcement, but he wasn't identified. The summary didn't specify what the women accused him of doing or the time period. Because the official had left the department, there wouldn't be any internal disciplinary process. No criminal charges were filed.
Nearly 10 months later, BuzzFeed News obtained a copy of the inspector general's full report. The 12-page document is redacted but includes a slew of new information, including detailed accounts from two of the women who described a pattern of escalating workplace harassment, as well as investigators' findings that the former official "lacked credibility" and provided "conflicting testimony."
The former official's name is redacted in the inspector general's report, but BuzzFeed News previously identified him as Edison Aponte, who had worked at DOJ since 1994, according to a Justice Department spokesperson. Aponte's most recent title was associate deputy director in the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a section within the Office of Justice Programs that provides law enforcement training and grants — including, several sources noted, on issues related to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
"It boggles the mind," said Jon Adler, who took over as the head of the Bureau of Justice Assistance in late 2017. By then, the inspector general's investigation was underway and Aponte had been placed on leave.
A source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation originally confirmed Aponte's identity to BuzzFeed News in December. Reached by phone in December, Aponte said he could not confirm the inspector general's report was about him and hung up.
Since then, four current and former Office of Justice Programs employees with firsthand knowledge of the investigation have confirmed that the official described in the inspector general's report is Aponte. BuzzFeed News also reviewed documents that refer to events described in the report that name him. Aponte did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him for comment in the past month.
One woman told the inspector general's office that Aponte's behavior began with inappropriate comments and unwanted touching — she said she put a mirror in her cubicle because he would come up behind her and rub her shoulders — and said he eventually raped her. Aponte denied the assault, but told investigators they had sex.
Another woman told investigators that it started with suggestive comments over drinks. Aponte once took her to a topless bar and asked her what sexual positions she liked, she said. She later felt pressured into a sexual relationship to secure a promotion; he knew she was struggling financially, she said. Aponte denied that relationship.
A third woman told investigators she engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with Aponte. The inspector general concluded that the relationship was still harassment because he was her supervisor; he should have notified his superior about the relationship and stepped aside as the women's supervisor to avoid even the appearance of a "loss of impartiality," but failed to do so, according to the report. Two other women reported "uncomfortable" encounters with him.
One of the women who reported being harassed — the one who said he pressured her to have sex in order to get a promotion — received a financial settlement from the Justice Department, a source with firsthand knowledge of the agreement told BuzzFeed News. The woman and her lawyer declined an interview request.
The woman who reported that Aponte sexually harassed and raped her agreed to speak with BuzzFeed News on the condition that she only be identified by her initials, S.C. She said she felt ignored and abandoned by department officials after she first reported being harassed by him in 2012. She's still angry about how the department handled her situation, and said the fact that Aponte is gone and the inspector general made a public finding of wrongdoing wasn't a satisfying resolution.
"What he did to those other people, management allowed to have happened — because they didn't do anything when I went to them. They allowed that. They protected him and they allowed it," she said.
The report doesn't say what happened in the year after the investigation ended, but BuzzFeed News reviewed documents and interviewed sources inside the department that fill in the timeline. A senior human resources manager told the employees union in January that new "mandatory" sexual harassment training for all Office of Justice Programs employees would begin in the spring and that management would consult with the union on a new sexual harassment policy. However, three sources — a union official, a former senior official at OJP, and a current employee — told BuzzFeed News that none of that has happened to date.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
Sexual harassment hasn't just been a problem in one office at the Justice Department. In May 2017, the inspector general's office alerted then-deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to "potential systemic issues" across DOJ. From 2012 to 2016, for instance, the inspector general released summaries of 19 substantiated complaints that included sexual misconduct and either involved high-level DOJ officials or were otherwise of "significant public interest."
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