Shame on the FBI for abandoning our Olympians

McKayla Maroney’s testimony before Congress on the FBI’s failure to move quickly with the Larry Nassar sexual assault case was devastating.

This heroic Olympic gold medalist wanted to save another young woman from the same abuse she suffered from Nassar. Boston’s Aly Raisman and fellow gymnasts Simone Biles and Maggie Nichols shared the same heart-wrenching message.

All of them stood tall — the FBI did not.

The lack of urgency by the agency is unacceptable.

An apology from FBI Director Christopher Wray is not enough. He did say an agent assigned to the Nassar case was fired. That’s also not enough.

The managers, office chiefs, deputy bosses — somebody in a leadership post — needs to be fired as well. This brand of heartlessness has no place in our country’s law enforcement community.

Haven’t we learned from the Catholic Church crisis? The James “Whitey” Bulger reign?

The FBI is a broken agency that continues to be too politically charged and weak in too many areas. It’s time to fix the FBI. But don’t take our word for it. Listen to McKayla Maroney. See the tears roll down her cheeks.

“Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,” Maroney testified. “They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others.”

She told Congress that Larry Nassar, the U.S. Gymnastics national team and Olympic team doctor, was “more of a pedophile than he was a doctor.”

Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison in January 2018 after more than 150 women and girls accused him of sexual abuse. The Olympians were among those victims.

Sadly, predators do all they can to keep abusing. All the more reason to move fast to cut them off.

Somebody at the FBI needed to realize this was the moment to act. Seize the day and protect the innocent. It’s unconscionable this did not happen. They did not give Maroney the respect she deserves.

“I then told the FBI about Tokyo, the day (Nassar) gave me a sleeping pill for the plane ride to then work on me later that night. That evening, I was naked, completely alone, with him on top of me, molesting me for hours. I told them I thought I was going to die that night because there was no way that he would let me go. But he did. I told them I walked the halls of Tokyo hotel at 2 a.m., at only 15 years old,” she told Congress.

She went on: “I then proceeded to tell them about London and how he’d sign me up last on his sheet so he could molest me for hours twice a day. I told them how he molested me right before I won my team gold medal, how he gave me presents, bought me caramel macchiatos and bread when I was hungry. … This was very clear, cookie-cutter pedophilia and abuse. And this is important because I told the FBI all of this, and they chose to falsify my report and to not only minimize my abuse but silence me yet again.”

Enough is enough. It’s time for Congress to actually do something about the FBI. Make a bold move. Do it quickly. Announce it for all to see.

How about trying — at least this one time — to be as brave as these gymnasts?