Ex-U.S. Diplomat Must Pay $3M for Husband’s Sexual Abuse of Maid

Former U.S. diplomat Linda Howard must pay $3 million for her role in her husband’s sexual abuse of a housekeeper in Yemen, a federal appeals court affirmed Feb. 25.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s civil remedy provision has always applied to offenses committed outside the U.S., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled.

Howard was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, where she and her Australian husband lived in State Department housing. The district court found that Howard was aware her husband continually raped, sexually assaulted, and threatened the couple’s live-in housekeeper, a young ...