Nassar victims, including Simone Biles, sue the FBI for failed early investigation

WASHINGTON – More than 90 women who said they were sexually assaulted by Lawrence J. They received reliable information about his crimes.

The lawsuits come two weeks after the Ministry of Justice ended I decided not to prosecute Two former FBI agents are accused of subverting the FBI’s 2015 investigation into Nassar, allowing him to abuse girls for more than a year before Michigan authorities arrested him. were the agents Accused By the oversight body of the Ministry of Justice for making false statements on the matter.

Plaintiffs include Olympic gymnastics gold medalists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, and national gymnastics medalist Maggie Nichols, as well as former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy and former gymnast Kylie Lorinks, who is now a sex advocate. Victims of abuse.

“My fellow survivors and I have been betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us – the US Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, the FBI and now the Department of Justice,” Ms. Maroney said in a statement. “It is clear that the only way to achieve justice and healing is through legal procedures,” she added.

Their attorney, John C. Manley, said in a statement that the plaintiffs were seeking various damages but that their total claims would exceed $1 billion.

Mr Nassar, who was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison, has been accused of molesting hundreds of girls and women, including several members of the women’s gymnastics teams at the 2012 and 2016 US Olympics.

The FBI field office in Indianapolis received evidence of his crimes in 2015. Agents proceeded to interview gymnasts including Ms. Maroney, who provided detailed testimony. In the end, they did not take any action to intensify the investigation or stop Mr. Nassar.

The Department of Justice Inspector General later charged W. Jay Abbott, who was in charge of the field office in Indianapolis, and Michael Langman, an agent in that office, of making false statements to investigators who were investigating their actions.

in Report Released last summer, the inspector general said Mr. Abbott made false statements “to minimize errors made by the Indianapolis field office in the handling of Nassar’s allegations.”

He also said that Mr. Abbott was speaking to USA Gymnastics about potential job opportunities while asking the organization about allegations against Mr. Nassar, actions that violate FBI policy.

The inspector general’s report said the FBI had mishandled witness interviews and had not shared credible information about abuse with appropriate authorities.

It also found that 70 or more athletes were sexually assaulted 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 University Police Department received Michigan State memo separate complaint.

The women who are suing the FBI say they were abused during this time.

“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he had a chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including myself,” Roy said in a statement.