SHAME ON THE FBI! Aly Raisman and Simone Biles are among 90 athletes suing the federal government for $1 billion over Larry Nassar’s torture.
On September 15, 2021, Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Maggie Nichols testify at a hearing on the FBI’s handling of the Larry Nassar investigation (photo by Saul Loeb – Pool and Scott Olson/Getty Images).
Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols, and McKayla Maroney are among the 90 survivors of sexual assault by sport doctor Larry Nassar who have filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the FBI. They alleged that when allegations of Nassar sexually assaulting gymnasts initially appeared in 2015, the government body failed to investigate him.
According to reports from Al Jazeera, Nassar assaulted at least 70 more young athletes after the Justice Department decided not to prosecute two FBI investigators, Jay Abbott and Michael Langeman, for their mishandling of the case despite an internal watchdog report that found the agents failed to properly respond to reports of abuse in 2015, leaving Nassar to assault at least 70 more young athletes.
After being accused of assaulting over 100 girls while working as a physician for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, Larry Nassar appears in court to hear victim impact statements before being sentenced. ((Photo courtesy of Getty Images/Scott Olson))
The sex abuse controversy involving Larry Nassar
This is the most serious case of sexual abuse in sports history. The victims of the 58-year-old, who include some of today’s most well-known female athletes, surpass those of Harvey Weinstein, a film director, and Bill Cosby, a comedian, combined.
Nassar’s survivors made complaints as early as 1997, when he worked as a team doctor for the Michigan State gymnastics team, according to the DOJ investigation. In 2015, the gymnasts filed three fresh accusations with the FBI’s Indianapolis branch. Nassar was not caught until the fall of 2016 when the FBI failed to carry out mandatory investigation tasks, allowing him to continue to prey on young and minor girls for almost a year.
The FBI “failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies,” according to the DOJ, which also found that the FBI “only interviewed one of the complainants over the phone without speaking with the others.” The report contained several more examples of incompetence, alluding to the FBI’s failure to take the complaints or its investigation into Nassar seriously.
On September 15, 2021 in Washington, DC, U.S. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles testifies before a Senate Judiciary hearing about the Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Larry Nassar investigation. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images/Graeme Jennings-Pool) )
According to Yahoo, Biles and Maroney both testified in front of Congress this past September on the inadequacies of the systems put in place to safeguard them and other women. Maroney has shared harrowing details regarding the notorious gymnastics doctor’s mistreatment of her. More disturbingly, she had previously expressed concern that “Nassar would kill her when he abused her in a hotel room when she was 15.”
Biles laid blame on Nassar first and foremost, but also on USA Gymnastics, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and the FBI. “I am convinced that the circumstances that led to my abuse and allowed it to continue were directly caused by the failure of the organizations created by Congress to oversee and protect me as an athlete — USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) — to do their jobs,” Biles said.