Olympic champion Simone Biles and dozens of other women who reported being sexually abused by Larry Nassar claim more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to prevent the former national team doctor when the agency first received accusations against him. , lawyers said Wednesday.
It is not disputed that agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2015 were aware that Nassar had been accused of committing abuses against gymnasts. But they did not know how to respond and the doctor was able to continue abusing the young athletes for more than a year. Nassar pleaded guilty in 2017 and is serving decades in prison.
“It’s time for the FBI to take responsibility,” said Maggie Nichols, a national gymnastics champion at the University of Oklahoma from 2017-2019.
Under federal law, a federal agency has six months to respond to grievances filed Wednesday. Legal litigation could be filed, depending on the FBI’s response.
The nearly 90 plaintiffs include Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, all Olympic gold medal winners, according to Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a California law firm.
“If the FBI had done their job, Nassar would have been stopped before he could abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” said Samantha Roy, a former University of Michigan gymnast.
The Associated Press emailed the FBI seeking reaction.
The Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics Federation notified agents at the local FBI office in 2015 that three gymnasts had been abused by Nassar. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation and did not notify federal or state authorities, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general.
FBI agents in Los Angeles opened a sex tourism investigation against Nassar in 2016 and investigated several victims but also did not alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2016 that Nassar was arrested as part of a Michigan State University investigation. Nassar was working as a doctor at the university.
The Michigan state attorney general ended up handling the charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography indictment.
Speaking to Congress last year, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged serious mistakes.
The FBI has acknowledged that its conduct was inexcusable.
“I am very sorry that there were people in the FBI who could have stopped this monster in 2015 and they did not know how to do it. And that is inexcusable,” Wray told victims at a Senate hearing.
