Raymond's defence team is seeking a sentence on the lower end of the range, citing, in part, his service in the CIA.
Photo / The Washington Post
Raymond's defence team is seeking a sentence on the lower end of the range, citing, in part, his service in the CIA.
Photo / The Washington Post
United States prosecutors are calling for a former CIA officer to be imprisoned for 30 years for sex offences against more than two dozen women.
Many of his victims were drugged and recorded, in what prosecutors described as “an extraordinary case of wanton abuse” spanning 14 years.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, faces a two-day sentencing hearing starting Wednesday before US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Washington.
In a November plea deal with prosecutors, Raymond admitted to drugging 27 different unsuspecting women from five countries and engaging in nonconsensual sexual acts or contact with 10 of them. He also admitted producing obscene material depicting 25 of them without their knowledge or permission.
“Brian drugged and abused me on several occasions, leaving me with memory gaps and a void that is impossible to fill,” a woman identified only as Adult Victim-8 said in a government sentencing recommendation.
“Seeing myself manipulated by a sexual predator in videos is one of the saddest and most disgusting experiences I have ever had,” she added.
Raymond “appeared kind and educated and … worked for an agency that is supposed to protect the world from evil,” another victim, identified as Victim-12, said in the government’s memo, which was signed by prosecutors Angela N. Buckner, Katharine A. Wagner and Meredith E. Mayer-Dempsey.
Raymond, who worked for more than 20 years in the federal government, pleaded guilty to four of the 25 counts he was originally charged with – including sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material. In his plea deal, he agreed to pay $10,000 in restitution to each of the victims identified by sentencing and to lifetime post-incarceration supervision.
Court-appointed defence attorney Howard Katzoff urged Kollar-Kotelly to sentence Raymond to 24 years, the lower end of the sentencing range both sides agreed to in plea papers, citing his client’s “long and accomplished career serving this country,” the trauma he incurred in “quasi-military service” – an apparent reference to CIA duties that were not publicly detailed – and his decision to plead guilty to spare victims a trial.
Raymond “recognises that his conduct was reprehensible and shameful … and he intends to apologise directly to the women when he has the opportunity at sentencing,” Katzoff wrote. Still, he added, Raymond’s “extraordinary sacrifices and contributions during his many years of service, as well as the trauma he experienced while he was trying to help protect our many citizens and allies living around the world, should not be forgotten or swept under the rug”.
A sealed defence filing detailed claims by a forensic evaluator who said that Raymond’s occupation facilitated “objectification of other people,” emotional callousness, habitual secrecy, concealment and dishonesty even with family and friends.
Throughout his career in the CIA, Raymond – who speaks Spanish and Mandarin – “traveled extensively for work and leisure,” the FBI said in a 2021 release seeking help in finding potential victims. He also lived in different countries, including Peru and Mexico, where he spent two years.
Raymond’s unraveling began in May 2020, when Mexico City police responded to calls about a naked woman screaming for help from the balcony of a CIA officer’s apartment.
The last memory the woman could recall was drinking a glass of wine with Raymond during a date at his US Embassy-leased home – then she blacked out, according to court documents.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond. Photo / Washington Post
After police responded, Raymond insisted the encounter had been consensual, according to court records. The next day, he returned to the US, where – during the height of the coronavirus pandemic – he quarantined in Virginia for two weeks and resigned from the CIA. State Department agents, meanwhile, obtained a warrant to search his phones.
Prosecutors said agents ultimately recovered more than 500 explicit images from Raymond’s devices and accounts drawn from photographs and videos of 25 women, many of which were submitted to the court under seal for sentencing purposes.
“Many of the recordings show Raymond touching and manipulating the victim’s bodies while they were unconscious and incapable of consent,” including in Mexico City and the DC area, federal officials wrote.
Investigators said they also found evidence in the search histories on his phones and laptop – including the phrases “ambien and dissolve,” “ambien and alcohol side effects” – and frequent searches for “pornography relating to drugged, drunk, and/or passed out women”. Some of the searches came within days of his assaults on women.
Raymond’s “depraved” conduct and “abhorrent deeds” continued for years, and he transported his collection of images of vulnerable and abused women from country to country, prosecutors said.
Raymond was arrested in San Diego in October 2020 and has been held without bail in a DC jail for more than four years.
Raymond first pleaded guilty to federal charges of sexual abuse and transporting obscene material in 2021, before withdrawing his plea on grounds that his defence failed to investigate whether law enforcement violated his constitutional rights after he was pressured to give agents his phones’ passcodes. He reached a new plea agreement with new counsel last fall.
