FBI botched Larry Nassar investigation and covered up mistakes, allowing abuse to continue for months, report finds
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Your support makes all the difference.The Federal Bureau of Investigation botched its Larry Nassar investigation and covered up mistakes, allowing abuse to continue for months, a damning internal report has found.
Nassar, the former team doctor for USA Gymnastics, was sentenced to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting hundreds of girls, including US Olympians Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles, and McKayla Maroney.
Now the Justice Department’s internal watchdog has said that the FBI made serious errors in its probe into the abuse and did not treat it with the “utmost seriousness”.
“Senior officials in the FBI Indianapolis Field Office failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies,” the report states.
Nassar was first reported to the Indianapolis FBI office in 2015, but the report confirms that the law enforcement agency “conducted no investigative activity in the matter for more than 8 months” after it did a phone interview with a victim in September 2015.
“During that period of time, as alleged and detailed in numerous civil complaints, Nassar’s sexual assaults continued,” the report adds.
And when the claims against Nassar became public, officials at the Indianapolis FBI office “did not take responsibility for their failures”.
“Instead, they provided incomplete and inaccurate information in response to FBI internal inquiries to make it appear that the Indianapolis office had been diligent in its follow-up efforts and they did so, in part, by blaming others for their own failures.”
Nassar was eventually charged and convicted of child sexual abuse in Michigan state court.
He also pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges after an investigation by police at Michigan State University, where he worked.
That university has agreed a $500m settlement with more than 300 of Nassar’s victims.
The report also stated that the FBI’s Indianapolis office did not correctly transfer the case to the FBI office nearest to Lansing, despite telling US Gymnastics that it had done so, and it did not tell state or local officials of the allegations made against Nassar.
“As a result, the Lansing Resident Agency did not learn of the Nassar allegations until over a year after they were first reported to the FBI and then learned of them only from the MSUPD,” the report states.
The FBI acknowledged its failures in a statement following the release of the report.
“As the Inspector General made clear in today’s report, this should not have happened. The FBI will never lose sight of the harm that Nassar’s abuse caused,” the agency said.
“The actions and inactions of certain FBI employees described in the Report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization. The FBI has taken affirmative steps to ensure and has confirmed that those responsible for the misconduct and breach of trust no longer work FBI matters.
“Prior to today, the FBI initiated improvements to make sure that serious allegations, such as these, are promptly shared with our law enforcement partners and within the FBI.
“As a continuation of these efforts, the FBI is fully committed to implementing all of the recommendations made by the Inspector General.
“We will take all necessary steps to ensure that the failures of the employees outlined in the Report do not happen again.”
The release of the report comes as the US women’s gymnastics team, including superstar Simone Biles, travels to Tokyo for the pandemic-delayed Olympic Games, which begin next week.
W Jay Abbott, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis office, resigned from the bureau in 2017.
He was accused of waiting five weeks before telling the FBI about the first allegations received by US Gymnastics about Nassar’s behaviour.
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