Gymnasts slam sports groups, FBI for lax Nassar case handling
Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman ripped the FBI during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, saying the feds knew USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sexually abusing children and “did nothing to restrict his access.”
The Boston resident said it’s critical that the FBI, USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee are “completely investigated.”
“We cannot believe that there’s a safer future for children unless we fully understand every single thing that happened,” Raisman said, later adding, “I don’t want to be guessing that they (children) are going to be OK. I want to know with 100% certainty that somebody that looked the other way for us isn’t still in a position of power.”
The hearing was part of a congressional effort to hold the FBI accountable after multiple missteps in investigating the case.
At least 40 girls and women said they were molested after the FBI had been made aware of allegations against Nassar in 2015.
“Over the past few years, it has become painfully clear how a survivor’s healing is affected by the handling of their abuse, and it disgusts me that we are still fighting for the most basic answers and accountability over 6 years later,” Raisman said.
The FBI failed to conduct interviews in a timely manner, the Needham native said. It took more than 14 months for the FBI to contact her despite her requests to be interviewed.
“I felt pressured by the FBI to consent to Nassar’s plea deal,” she said. “The agent diminished the significance of my abuse and made me feel my criminal case wasn’t worth pursuing.”
“My reports of abuse were not only buried by USAG and USOPC, but they were also mishandled by federal law enforcement officers who failed to follow their most basic duties,” she later added. “The FBI and others within both USAG and USOPC knew that Nassar molested children, and did nothing to restrict his access.”
USA Gymnastics “quietly allowed Nassar to slip out the side door, knowingly allowing him to continue his ‘work’ at MSU, Sparrow Hospital, a USAG club, and even run for school board,” Raisman said. “Nassar found more than 100 new victims to molest. It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter.”
An internal investigation by the Justice Department said that the FBI made fundamental errors in the probe and did not treat the case with the “utmost seriousness” after USA Gymnastics first reported the allegations to the FBI in 2015.
Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles told Congress that federal law enforcement and gymnastics officials turned a “blind eye” to Nassar’s sexual abuse of her and hundreds of other women.
“I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” Biles said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was “deeply and profoundly sorry” for delays in Nassar’s prosecution and the pain it caused.
Nassar pleaded guilty in 2017 to federal child pornography offenses and sexual abuse charges in Michigan. He is now serving decades in prison.
USA Gymnastics and hundreds of Nassar’s victims filed a joint $425 million settlement proposal in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis last month.