On Wednesday, a group representing 90 young women, including Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman, filed federal tort claims against the FBI because they’re seeking more than $1 billion in damages for the bureau’s mishandling of its investigation into former U.S. Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse.
In 2015, it was reported that Nassar had abused the majority of the claimants, during which there was no investigation, and Nassar continued to abuse young women and children sexually. Many of the athletes were connected to the USA Gymnastics program or the Michigan State University clinic where Nassar worked.
The DOJ stated last month that each FBI agent identified by the inspector general as responsible for the investigation’s failure — and subsequent attempts to deceive the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General — will not face prosecution.
“My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us — the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, the FBI, and now the Department of Justice,” Maroney, an Olympic gold medalist, said in a statement. “It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is through the legal process.”
The Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows those who have been damaged by the federal government’s negligent or unjust conduct to seek relief, is being used to file the Collective Administrative Claims.
In April, thirteen more victims filed similar lawsuits against the FBI. While the submission on Wednesday was not the first under the act, it was the most comprehensive, and it included the most renowned of Nassar’s accusers. Raisman, Maroney, and others have testified before Congress, demanding that the FBI be held accountable.
According to the claims, there was a yearlong gap between when Nassar was first accused of abusing gymnasts on the American national team and his eventual arrest. This was not a result of an FBI investigation but a local police investigation.
“The FBI knew that Larry Nassar was a danger to children when his abuse of me was first reported in September of 2015. For 421 days, they worked with USA Gymnastics and USOPC to hide this information from the public and allowed Nassar to continue molesting young women and girls. It is time for the FBI to be held accountable,” said NCAA national champion gymnast Maggie Nichols, Nassar’s first victim.
FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged that “people at the FBI had their chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”
Nassar admitted to abusing 10 of the more than 265 victims who came forward to allege they had been molested in 2018. He faces a maximum sentence of 175 years in jail.
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