FEDS’ ‘BLIND EYE’ TO FIEND’S ABUSE
Tormented US gymnasts tell Senate: Coverup left doc free to prey
Superstar Simone Biles broke down in tears Wednesday as she and fellow top US gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman told Congress the FBI turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse by sicko sports doctor Larry Nassar — thereby serving “innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter.”
Biles had to regain her composure as she delivered heartwrenching testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
The seven-time Olympian blamed the FBI, as well as USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, for covering up the USA Gymnastics team doctor’s abuse.
“It truly feels like the FBI turned a blind eye to us and went out of its way to help protect USAG and USOPC,” Biles said.
“I don’t want another young gymnast or Olympic athlete to experience the horror I and hundreds of others have endured,” she said. “How much is a little girl worth?”
Biles suggested the trauma of the botched FBI investigation played a part in her shocking withdrawal from the Olympic team final and several individual events at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
“As the lone competitor in the recent Tokyo Games who was a survivor of this horror, I can assure you the impacts of this man’s abuse are not ever over or forgotten,” she said.
Still, Biles said she was determined to ensure one of Nassar’s victims was competing at Tokyo so the abuse — and mishandled investigation — could not be ignored.
“I worked incredibly hard to make sure that my presence could maintain a connection between the failures and the competition at Tokyo 2020,” she said.
Nassar, a former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, is serving 40 to 175 years in prison on sex-assault charges on top of a 60-year sentence for child pornography charges.
More than 250 women have accused the convicted pedophile of sexually abusing them under the guise of medical treatment. The abuse stretched back decades.
Biles’ former Olympic teammate Maroney also faced the Senate Judiciary Committee and accused the FBI of ignoring her pleas for help.
“I was molested by the US gymnastics national team and Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar,” the gymnast said.
“In actuality, he turned out to be more of a pedophile than he was a doctor.”
Maroney said the feds deliberately ignored, and then lied about, accusations leveled against the disgraced doctor.
“After telling my entire story of abuse to the FBI in the summer of 2015, 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,” she said.
“They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others.”
Maroney recounted how Nassar repeatedly raped her during her gymnastics career — and at times she even feared for her life.
“I told them the first thing Larry Nassar ever said to me was to change into shorts without underwear because that would make it easier for him to work on me, and within minutes he had his fingers in my vagina,” she testified.
“This was very clear cookie-cutter pedophilia and abuse. I told the FBI all of this, and they chose to falsify my report and not only minimize my abuse but silence me.
“USA Gymnastics in concert with the FBI and the Olympic Committee were working together to conceal that Larry Nassar was a predator.”
Maggie Nichols, the first known gymnast to report Nassar’s sexual abuse, said she is “haunted” by the FBI’s handling of the case — which she described as a “coverup.”
“I am haunted by the fact that even after reporting my abuse, so many women and girls had to suffer at the hands of Larry Nassar,” Nichols testified Wednesday.
“The coverup of my abuse and the FBI’s failure to interview me for more than a year after I filed my complaint are well-documented, “she said. “While my complaints were with the FBI, Larry Nassar con
I am tired of waiting for people to do the right thing. Because my abuse was enough, and we deserve justice. These individuals clearly violated policies and were negligent in executing their duties. And in doing so, more girls were abused by Larry Nassar for over a year.
I felt pressured by the FBI to consent to Nassar’s plea deal. The agent diminished the significance of my abuse and made me feel my criminal case wasn’t worth pursuing. The FBI and others within both [Olympic gymnastic organizations] knew that Nassar molested children and did nothing to restrict his access. Nassar found more than 100 new victims to molest. It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter.
The scars of this horrific abuse continue to live with all of us. As the lone competitor in the recent Tokyo Games who is a survivor of this horror, I can assure you that the impacts of this man’s abuse are not ever over or forgotten . . . I am a strong individual and I will persevere, but I never should’ve been left alone to suffer the abuse of Larry Nassar.
tinued to abuse women and girls.”
Two-time Olympian Aly Raisman said the federal law-enforcement agency allowed young gymnasts to be needlessly abused.
“In 2015 it was known at least six national-team athletes had been abused by Nassar. One of the athletes was even abused on film,” Raisman testified.
The gymnast blasted the feds for failing “to follow their most basic duties” and accused agents of “knowingly allowing him to continue his ‘work.’”
“It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter,” she said.
Raisman also slammed the Department of Justice for not showing up to Wednesday’s hearing, which she claimed was proof that the agency did not take sexual-assault seriously.
“The message they are sending is that abuse doesn’t matter. I think it’s completely shocking and disturbing that they didn’t think it was important or wasn’t bad enough for them to come,” said Raisman, who called for a full independent investigation into USAG and USOC.
In response to the intense testimony, FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted before the panel that the feds failed to keep young women and girls safe from a predator.
“I am especially sorry there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed,” Wray said in his testimony.
“That is inexcusable. It never should have happened, and we’re doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.”
He said the inaction of the agency and its employees is “totally unacceptable.”
“These individuals betrayed the core duty they have of protecting people,” Wray testified.
“They failed to protect young women and girls from abuse.”
He also confirmed that agent Michael Langeman, a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Indianapolis office, had been fired after he failed to properly investigate Nassar.
“The supervisory special agent I can confirm has been terminated,” Wray said.