The Tor Project’s external investigation into claims that Jacob Appelbaum, the organisation’s former public face, sexually harassed and raped women has concluded, according to Tor Project executive director Shari Steele.
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Steele declined to discuss the conclusions of the report but said that Tor will release the general findings of the investigation as well as new guidelines regarding sexual harassment sometime this week.
Earlier this month, the Tor Project completely replaced its Board Of Directors after reports the board had known about allegations against Appelbaum for more than a year.
Appelbaum has denied claims that he raped and harassed women within the Tor Project, and hasn’t replied to multiple requests for comment from Gizmodo.
Steele told Gizmodo that the Tor Project has no plans to bring any of the sexual assault claims to law enforcement, but said that she can’t speak for the individual victims. The external probe, conducted by a lawyer who specialises in sexual assault investigations, interviewed more than six people who claimed to be victims of Appelbaum’s abuse or to have witnessed it. According to one woman interviewed as part of the probe, the investigator conducted multiple interviews over a period of two months.
“We were especially looking at the accusations against Jacob Appelbaum and also looking to see if there were any broader long term implications for the broader community,” Steele told Gizmodo. She said the investigation also looked at whether the Tor Project held any liability.
Multiple women have publicly claimed that Appelbaum has either sexually assaulted or raped them. Since denying the claims, Appelbaum hasn’t made any public statements.
People inside the Tor Project are still deliberating what Tor’s statement regarding the report will say, though one source with knowledge of the investigation said that the report will not use the word “rape”.
The Tor Project plans to give details of the report exclusively to The New York Times later this week.