Olympians seek charges against ex-FBI agents
Gymnasts, senators question at hearing why pair haven’t been prosecuted for lying
Two and a half hours into a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the FBI’s mishandling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case involving Olympic gymnasts, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., offered FBI Director Christopher Wray some advice.
“If I was in your shoes,” Blumenthal told Wray, “I would be walking across the street to the attorney general of the United States and I would be saying you need to prosecute.
“Why aren’t you doing that?” The hearing was in response to the July release of a Department of Justice Office of Inspector General’s report that found the FBI failed to act in its Nassar investigation “with the urgency that the allegations required.”
Specifically, the inspector general’s investigation found that Michael Langeman, the supervisory special agent in the FBI’s
“I don’t want another young gymnast, Olympic athlete or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds
of others have endured before, during and continuing to this day, in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse.”
— Simone Biles, United States Olympic gymnast
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., hugs gymnast Aly Raisman after a Senate Judiciary hearing about the inspector general’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Larry Nassar investigation on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Fellow gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Jessica Howard look on.
Indianapolis office, lied to investigators to cover up errors made in the bureau’s investigation into allegations that Nassar, the former U.S. Olympic and USA Gymnastics national team physician, sexually assaulted gymnasts under the guise of treatment.
The OIG also determined that W. Jay Abbott, the Indianapolis special agent in charge, lied to investigators about applying for a top level security position with the U.S. Olympic Committee while consulting with USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny about the Nassar case.
Abbott retired from the FBI in January2018. Langeman was fired from the bureau two weeks ago, Wray confirmed Wednesday.
But the Justice Department has declined to prosecute either man.
Wray responded to Blumenthal’s question by saying he would not discuss the nature of his private conversations with Attorney General Merrick Garland, adding that he was “careful not to blur my lanes of responsibility.”
Wray told the committee that Justice Department officials twice, once in 2020 and again earlier this year, declined to indict Abbott and Langeman.
“A whole lot of people should be prosecuted here besides Nassar,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., during his questioning of Wray and Inspector General Michael Horowitz. “Some of the people within the athletic field that were aware of this turned a blind eye to this, did nothing, allowed all these victims (to be abused).”
The FBI agents, Olympic champion Simone Biles told the committee, should “at least be federally prosecuted to the fullest extent because they need to be held accountable.”
“It’s not only that the FBI failed to do its job, systematically and repeatedly, it is also the cover of the coverup
that occurred afterward,” Blumenthal said. “This failure was systematic. This investigation was mishandled from coast to coast, from Indianapolis to Los Angeles,”
The Olympians and senators also expressed outrage that Justice Department officials turned down an invitation to attend the hearing.
“What’s even more upsetting to me is that we know that these FBI agents have committed an obvious crime,” 2012 Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney said, referring to the FBI not following up on a three-hour telephone interview in 2015 with Langeman. “They falsified my statement and that is illegal in itself. Yet no recourse has been taken against them. The Department of Justice refused to prosecute these individuals. Why? Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco couldn’t bring herself to be here today. It’s the Department of Justice’s job to hold them accountable.
“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. To not indict these agents is a disservice to me and my teammates, a disservice to the system which is built to protect all of us from abuse.”
USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny and other top USA Gymnastics officials were informed in June 2015 of allegations that gymnast Maggie Nichols had been sexually assaulted by Nassar under the guise of treatment at a U.S. national team camp at the Karolyi Ranch in remote Central Texas. Within days, Penny and other officials also learned of allegations that Olympic champions Aly Raisman and Maroney had also been sexually abused by Nassar. About this time Penny began communicating with Abbott through a series of conversations and emails, often seeking the FBI agent’s advice on handling the case.
Nassar, according to court documents, sexually abused
at least 40 young athletes between Penny’s first contact with the FBI agent in charge of the bureau’s Indianapolis office in July2015 and September 2016 when Nassar’s abuse became public. The number of victims in that window could surpass 100, according to persons familiar with dozens of Nassar-related lawsuits.
“In sacrificing my childhood for the chance to compete for the United States, I am haunted by the fact that even after I reported my abuse, so many women and girls had to suffer at the hands of Larry Nassar,” Nichols told the committee.
Raisman recounted how the FBI failed to contact her about Nassar’s abuse for more than a year despite repeated requests by her and her mother to be interviewed.
Raisman also said she “felt pressured by the FBI to consent to Nassar’s plea deal” on federal child pornography charges.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2017 in the child pornography case. He was later sentenced to 40 to 175 years and 40 to 125 years in two Michigan state courts after pleading guilty to multiple sexual assault charges. He is currently an inmate at a federal prison in Florida.
“I remember sitting with the FBI agent and him trying to convince me that it wasn’t that bad,” Raisman said. “It’s taken me years of therapy to realize that my abuse was bad, that it does matter.”
It was, she said “like my abuse didn’t count; that it wasn’t a big deal.”
Biles also criticized USA Gymnastics and the USOPC for their roles in creating “an entire system that enabled and perpetuated his abuse.”
“I don’t want another young gymnast, Olympic athlete or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before, during and continuing to this day, in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse,” Biles said.