INDIANAPOLIS--Three Olympic gymnastic gold medalists and an NCAA champion are among 90 women filing claims for more than $1 billion dollars from the FBI over mishandling its sex abuse investigation of former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar.
Olympians Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman, along with NCAA and world champion Maggie Nichols and more than 80 other women filed federal tort claims against the FBI Wednesday. The claims detail a gap between the Bureau first getting reports of Nassar’s abuse and his eventual arrest.
A report from the Justice Department found that USA Gymnastics reached out to the FBI’s Indianapolis field office in July 2015 about the accusations against Nassar, but that office’s inaction led USA Gymnastics to again report Nassar in May 2016 to a Los Angeles FBI field office. That office put more work into an investigation but took no action against Nassar.
The report says Nassar victimized about 70 women and girls between the time when the FBI was first told of the accusations and when Michigan representatives arrested him in the fall of 2016 on the basis of separate information.
“The FBI knew that Larry Nassar was a danger to children when his abuse of me was first reported in September of 2015,” said Nichols. “For 421 days, they worked with USA Gymnastics and USOPC to hide this information from the public and allowed Nassar to continue molesting young women and girls. It is time for the FBI to be held accountable.”
The FBI announced on May 26 that it was upholding its decision not to charge the agents involved in the Nassar investigation.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on December 7, 2017, after pleading guilty to child pornography and tampering with evidence charges on July 11, 2017. On January 24, 2018, Nassar was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years in Michigan State prison after pleading guilty in Ingham County to seven counts of sexual assault of minors. On February 5, 2018, he was sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in Michigan State prison after pleading guilty to an additional three counts of sexual assault in Eaton County.
