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F.B.I. agents stationed overseas had sex with prostitutes in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand, even as some bureau employees attended training meant to combat human trafficking, a practice that often exploits vulnerable women, according to an investigation by the Justice Department\u2019s watchdog.<\/p>\n
The document, made public on Thursday in response to a lawsuit by The New York Times, covers activity from 2009 to 2018, and describes F.B.I. employees paying for or accepting sex while socializing with each other and with the police in several countries, portraying a lascivious culture where women were freely used for sex.<\/p>\n
The previously unreleased information gives the fullest picture to date of damning conduct by F.B.I. agents abroad, resolving some of the unanswered questions from a scandal that began under the first Trump administration and was largely kept quiet for years as government lawyers argued against disclosing details. They come as the new F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, has promised to remake the bureau.<\/p>\n
Prostitution is prevalent in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand but illegal in all three countries. The F.B.I., which has made combating sex trafficking a priority, prohibits employees from paying for sex.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request to comment.<\/p>\n
Some of the activity happened when officials were in other countries for conferences or events. In 2017, F.B.I. officials visiting Bangkok for an event twice went to bars where they negotiated for sex in the company of the police, the report says.<\/p>\n
That same year, the Royal Thai Police co-hosted a<\/a> training course with the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement agency within the Homeland Security Department, on combating human trafficking.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether the F.B.I. employees solicited sex during the anti-trafficking training or during another event.<\/p>\n On the sidelines of another event, in Manila in 2018, F.B.I. employees accepted prostitutes paid for by a local law enforcement agency, the report says.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal reported in 2018<\/a> that several F.B.I. employees had been recalled from cities across Asia while the inspector general investigated alleged contact with prostitutes and other accusations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 2021, the inspector general\u2019s office posted a brief summary of its inquiry<\/a>, noting that five employees had solicited sex while overseas, and that one of them had also given a colleague \u201ca package containing approximately 100 white pills to deliver to a foreign law enforcement officer.\u201d<\/p>\n The report makes clear that several violations happened when multiple F.B.I. employees were present. An outing to a karaoke bar turned seedy when the employees were given room keys or numbered papers corresponding to hotel rooms. At least one of the employees on that outing was a supervisor.<\/p>\n At one point, two employees engaged in sex acts with prostitutes while sharing a room, the report says.<\/p>\n After The Times sued for the internal report in 2023, the Justice Department under both the Biden and Trump administrations fought to keep the information secret, arguing that publishing details could violate employees\u2019 privacy. Last year, the Justice Department released a highly redacted version of the document. It released a more complete report on Thursday only after a federal judge in the Southern District of New York had ordered it to do so.<\/p>\n The five employees who solicited sex resigned, retired, or were removed during the oversight agency\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The F.B.I. is not the first U.S. law enforcement agency to come under scrutiny for the exploits of its staff while overseas. In 2015, the Justice Department\u2019s inspector general disclosed that Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Colombia had participated in sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels over several years. That report prompted a congressional investigation<\/a> and was swiftly followed by the retirement<\/a> of the Obama administration\u2019s top drug official.<\/p>\n And in 2012, the Secret Service was roiled by a prostitution scandal<\/a> involving a dozen agents, also in Colombia.<\/p>\n