Internal investigations in sexual misconduct cases often protect the accused

Twelve days after WarnerMedia launched an investigation into an alleged affair between Warner Bros. Chairman Kevin Tsujihara and a young actress, he was out. Tsujihara appeared to be another casualty of the #MeToo movement: a powerful Hollywood executive abruptly felled by shocking yet credible claims of sexually inappropriate behavior.

But the executive's ouster wasn't as sudden as it seemed. Tsujihara had been the subject of at least one investigation in more than a year, apparently without facing consequences. Indeed, just two days before long-rumored claims surfaced, AT&T-owned WarnerMedia awarded Tsujihara a big promotion. After the news broke, the company announced that a previous inquiry had found no evidence of misconduct and that it would investigate the "new allegations," raising questions about how thorough the previous investigations had been.

The eruption of sexual misbehavior claims against powerful, previously unassailable men has done much to make public what used to be private misconduct. But when it