Official: FBI botched Nassar probe
Inspector general’s report rebukes agency handling of sex-abuse case
Justice Department’s inspector general released a long-awaited report Wednesday that sharply criticized the FBI’s handling of the sexual abuse case involving Larry Nassar, the former doctor for the USA Gymnastics national team and Michigan State sports, which led to Nassar’s continued abuse of girls and women.
Nassar, who is serving what amounts to life in prison, has been accused of abusing hundreds of female patients — including Olympic champion Simone Biles of Spring and a majority of the last two U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics teams — under the guise of medical treatment.
The report, citing civil court documents, said 70 or more young athletes had been sexually abused by Nassar between July 2015, when USA Gymnastics first reported allegations against Nassar to the FBI’s Indianapolis field office, and August 2016, when the Michigan State University Police Department received a separate complaint.
John Manly, a lawyer for many of the victims, said that number is likely even higher — about 120 patients, including one as young as 8 years old.
“This is a devastating indictment of the FBI and the Department of Justice that multiple federal agents covered up Nassar’s abuse and child molestation,” Manly said. “They’ve failed these women. They’ve failed these families. No one seems to give a damn about these little girls.”
The inspector general’s report said senior FBI officials in the Indianapolis field office failed to respond to the allegations “with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required” and the investigation did not proceed until after a September 2016 report by the Indianapolis Star detailed Nassar’s abuse.
FBI officials in the office also “made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond” to the allegations and failed to notify state or local authorities of the allegations or take other steps to address the ongoing threat posed by Nassar, the report said.
According to the report, the special agent in charge of the Indianapolis field office, W. Jay Abbott, lied to the inspector general’s office numerous times when it asked him about the Nassar inquiry.
Abbott gave false statements “to minimize errors made by the Indianapolis Field Office in connection with the handling of the Nassar allegations,” there The port said.
It also said Abbott violated FBI policy when he spoke with Steve Penny, then the president and chief executive of USA Gymnastics, about potential job opportunities with the U.S. Olympic Committee, even as the two discussed the allegations against Nassar. Abbott later applied for a job at the USOC, but twice lied to the inspector general about seeking that job.
The Justice Department declined to prosecute Abbott, who retired in January 2018, and an unnamed supervisory special agent in Indianapolis in September 2020, according to the report. Abbott has reviewed the report, according to his lawyer, Josh Minkler.
“Mr. Abbott thanks the law enforcement officers and prosecutors who brought Larry Nassar to justice,” Minkler said in a statement. “Mr. Abbott hopes the courageous victims of Nassar’s horrible crime find peace.”
For Rachael Denhollander, a lawyer and a former gymnast who was the first person to publicly accuse Nassar of assault, the details in the report showed “an incredibly deep level of betrayal” that did not come as a surprise.
“When I came forward, I fully expected multiple levels of botched investigations and cover-ups because that’s what survivors are up against,” she said, adding that she assumed Nassar was abusing other women because he had worked with the national team for four years before abusing her, and she knew how abusers worked.
“This is what survivors are up against,” she said. “And they constantly get asked the question, ‘Why don’t survivors report?’ This is why.”
Earlier this year on May 14, the Justice Department notified the inspector general that it was not opening a new investigation into whether the supervisory special agent had made false statements during interviews with the inspector general. The FBI said that agent was no longer a supervisor and was not working on FBI matters. It said the agent’s conduct was set for review by the bureau’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who worked with Sen. Jerry Moran, RKan., on a 2019 Senate investigation of the Nassar scandal, called the report “absolutely chilling” and a “gut punch to anyone who cares about effective law enforcement.” He suggested the Senate hold hearings to hold the FBI accountable and said he wanted to know why FBI agents had not been criminally charged for having made false statements.
The FBI in a statement said it had made changes so that similar abuse allegations would be shared promptly within the bureau and with other law enforcement agencies.
“This should not have happened,” the FBI said. “The FBI will never lose sight of the harm that Nassar’s abuse caused. The actions and inactions of certain FBI employees described in the report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization.”