FBI failed to pursue Nassar sex abuse allegations

The FBI failed to properly investigate sex abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, the former doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, according to a scathing report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, who also determined that FBI officials gave misleading or false answers when confronted about those failures reports the Washington Post.

Despite “the extraordinarily serious nature of the allegations and the possibility that Nassar’s conduct could be continuing, senior officials in the FBI Indianapolis Field Office 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,” concludes the report issued Wednesday by Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

The report says that when confronted with the shortcomings in their handling of the case, such as failure to interview alleged victims, FBI officials in Indianapolis sought to blame others.

FBI officials said they accepted the report’s findings and were making changes to bureau policies to better handle reports of abuse involving children.

Inexcusable
“The actions and inactions of the FBI employees described in the Report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization and the values we hold dear,” Assistant Director Douglas Leff said in a written response to the report.

“At the FBI, we consider our mission to protect and serve the American people to be the highest responsibility. The conduct and facts in the Report are appalling, and we appreciate your continued efforts to examine it and recommend further improvements and safeguards.”

The inspector general also found that while the Indianapolis FBI office was dealing with the Nassar allegations in late 2015, the head of that office, Jay Abbott, talked to Stephen Penny, then-president of USA Gymnastics, about getting Abbott a job with the Olympic Committee.

Abbott, who retired from the FBI in 2018, applied for the Olympics job but did not get it, the report said.

Rachel Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse, said the FBI’s failures allowed Nassar to victimize more girls.

“Had the FBI done their job I never would have been put in the position of having to relinquish every shred of privacy to stop the abuse and coverup,” Denhollander tweeted. “The dozens of little girls abused after the FBI knew who Larry was and exactly what he was doing, could have and should have been saved. They deserve answers.”