A former CIA officer accused of drugging and sexually assaulting at least two dozen women during various overseas postings has pleaded guilty to federal sex abuse charges.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond kept nearly 500 videos and photographs he took of naked, unconscious women, including many in which he can be seen opening their eyelids, groping or straddling them.
Prosecutors said the images date to 2006 and track much of Raymond’s career, with victims in Mexico, Peru and other countries.
The 47-year-old has been described as an experienced sexual predator who kept detailed accounting of potential victims organised by name, ethnicity and notes on their physical characteristics.
Investigators combing his devices found an incriminating online search history for phrases such as “Ambien and alcohol and pass out” and “vodka & valium”.
In one email to an online pharmacy, Raymond wrote: “Hello, do you have chloral hydrate for insomnia?”
When he was arrested three years ago, Raymond had been stationed in Mexico City, where he would meet women on dating apps and invite them back to his embassy-leased apartment for drinks.
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He was only discovered in 2020 after a naked woman Raymond met on Tinder screamed for help from his balcony, prompting a worried neighbour to call the authorities.
US officials began identifying the victims, all of whom described experiencing some form of memory loss during their time with him.
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Prosecutors had intended to call as many as 14 alleged victims during trial.
As part of the agreement announced on Tuesday, Raymond pleaded guilty to four of 25 criminal counts including sexual abuse, coercion and transportation of obscene material.
Prosecutors dismissed the most serious charge of aggravated sexual abuse.
The CIA has publicly condemned Raymond’s crimes, and in May CIA Director William Burns launched a series of reforms to streamline claims, support victims and more quickly discipline those involved in misconduct.
“As this case shows, we are committed to engaging with law enforcement to ensure that justice is served,” the CIA said in a statement.
“In addition, we take any allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment extremely seriously and have taken significant steps to ensure we maintain a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for our workforce.”
The case was just the latest embarrassment for the CIA, which in recent months has seen a reckoning over its often secretive and antiquated handling of sexual misconduct claims within the spy agency.
According to reports, at least two dozen women have come forward to tell authorities and Congress about sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they contend are the CIA’s efforts to silence them.
A CIA officer trainee was convicted in August of assault and battery for wrapping a scarf around a colleague’s neck and trying to kiss her inside a stairwell at the agency’s headquarters in Langley.
A manhunt is under way after a married couple were killed while hiking with their children in an Arkansas state park.
Clinton Brink, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, were walking with their daughters, who are aged seven and nine, when they were attacked in Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday afternoon, according to Arkansas State Police.
Officers were called to reports of two people dead in the park at around 2.40pm, before their bodies were found on a walking trail.
Arkansas’s state lab are working to determine their cause of death, officials said.
Their children were not injured and are safe with relatives, authorities added.
A statement from the Brink family said the couple “died heroes, protecting their little girls”.
“They deserve justice. They will forever live in all our hearts,” the family added, asking for privacy as they “grieve and learn to navigate this new reality”.
The couple had only moved to Arkansas three weeks ago, having previously lived in California and eastern Montana, Mr Brink’s sister Karina Hutchins said.
Officials have not said how the couple were killed and have not provided a possible motive for the attack.
The suspect has been described as white, of medium build, and was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, a dark baseball cap, and sunglasses.
He was also carrying a black backpack and wearing fingerless gloves.
Police said he could have sustained injuries during the attack and exited the park in a black, four-door car, possibly a Mazda, with the number plate covered with duct tape.
He is then believed to have travelled on State Highway 170 or State Highway 220 to escape.
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A number of European leaders have hit out at the terms of the United States and European Union trade deal.
Speaking after talks in Turnberry, Mr Trump told reporters it was the “biggest deal ever made” and will be “great for cars” as well as having a “big impact” on agriculture.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the “big deal” would help bring “stability” to trade after months of turmoil over the threat of a trade war.
The US will impose 15% tariffs on most EU goods entering America, after Mr Trump had threatened a 30% levy.
But French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said of the terms: “It is a sombre day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission.”
Long-time EU critic, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, responded: “This is not an agreement … Donald Trump ate von der Leyen for breakfast, this is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the U.S. president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight.”
Image: President Donald Trump shakes hands with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry. Pic: Reuters
Others welcomed news of an agreement but seemed resigned to the terms.
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The deal includes $600bn (£446bn) of EU investments in the US, and the bloc will buy $750bn (£558bn) of US energy and also purchase American military equipment.
Mr Trump said: “I think it’s great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all.”
He said: “We are agreeing that the tariff… for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%.” However, the 15% baseline rate would not apply to steel and aluminium, for which a 50% tariff would stay in place.
Ms Von der Leyen said: “We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world and it’s a big deal, it’s a huge deal. It will bring stability, it will bring predictability, that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”
She said the agreement would include 15% tariffs “across the board”, and it would help rebalance trade between the two large trading partners.
She said the levy rate was the “best we could get” regarding the car sector.
But she added that there was “no decision” on the spirits sector, which was one of those areas where the details in the framework trade deal would have to be examined in the coming weeks.
Mr Trump had earlier said the main sticking point was “fairness”, citing barriers to US exports of cars and agriculture.
He went into the talks demanding fairer trade with the 27-member bloc and threatening steep tariffs to achieve that, while insisting the US will not go below 15% import taxes.
For months, Mr Trump has threatened most of the world with large tariffs in the hope of shrinking major US trade deficits with many key trading partners, including the EU.
In case there was no deal and the US had imposed 30% tariffs from 1 August, the EU has prepared counter-tariffs on €93bn (£81bn) of US goods.
Ahead of their meeting on Sunday, Ms Von der Leyen described Mr Trump as a “tough negotiator and dealmaker”.