FBI agents accused of messing up Larry Nassar’s case of sex abuse will not be charged
John Manly, a lawyer for many of Nassar’s alleged victims, called the decision “incomprehensible” and said FBI agents “violated their office and collaborated to cover up the worst sexual assault scandal in the sport’s history.” He said the timing of the announcement – shortly before a holiday weekend and under cover of a school shooting – “is another cynical attempt by [Justice Department] to cover up the FBI’s involvement “in the Nassar scandal.
The decision marks the third time that federal prosecutors investigated whether a senior FBI official and a prosecutor should be charged with lying about their work on the Nassar case. Deputy Prosecutor Lisa Monaco opened the review after several world-famous gymnasts in tearful testimony to Congress in September, in which they described in horrific detail the abuse they endured and their disbelief in the FBI’s decision not to investigate Nassar further. after the accusations against him first appeared.
Monaco, in announcing the review, said officials would look into the matter again because new evidence had emerged. Although she did not specify what this evidence was, lawmakers have sharply criticized the Justice Department for not pursuing charges after the agency’s inspector general concluded that a supervisory agent and his boss lied to internal investigators in an attempt to cover up their mistakes.
It is rare for the Department of Justice to even consider reopening a case that was closed without charge. One of Nassar’s agents retired years ago, and the other was fired last summer in the wake of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s scathing report, which found major flaws in the FBI’s handling of allegations against Nassar in 2015 that enabled him to sacrifice several patients before he was arrested by state authorities the following year.
In its statement, the Ministry of Justice said it will “continue to learn from what happened in this case and make an effort to keep the victims at the center of our work and ensure that they are heard, respected and treated fairly throughout the process they deserve, “and said it wanted to work with Congress to resolve unspecified loopholes in the law to” help prevent events like this from taking place in the future and hold perpetrators accountable. “
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) And Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) Called the decision “furious.” In a joint statement, they said: “FBI agents who knew of Larry Nassar’s abuse did nothing and lied about it will not face any legal consequences for their actions. Dozens of athletes would have been spared unimaginable abuse if “These agents just did it. Their job. Their actions require accountability.”
Simone Biles and three other high-profile gymnasts gave emotional testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last year about Nassar’s abuse and the FBI’s inaction.
“I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and executed his abuse,” Biles told the committee.
More than 330 girls and women have come forward to say they fell victim to Nassar under the guise of medical treatments. He was eventually convicted of state sexual abuse and federal charges of child pornography and serving an effective life sentence.
Monaco and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray have also issued public apologies to Nassar’s victims, and Wray called the agency’s failures “unforgivable. It should never have happened, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that it never happens again. ”
The main conduct referred to in the Nassar case took place within the federal statute of limitations for prosecuting those involved.
Supervisory Special Agent Michael Langeman, who was fired last year, allegedly lied to the Inspector General’s office in interviews in 2020 and 2021, according to Horowitz’s report.
Langeman was asked why he did not pursue a case against Nassar, whether he had actually referred the case to another FBI office, and why he wrote a report on an interview with a key victim more than a year after the interview took place. place.
The Inspector General’s report did not identify Langeman by name, but found that he lied to investigators “in an attempt to minimize or apologize for his mistakes.”
Horowitz also found that while the FBI was investigating the Nassar charges in late 2015, the head of the FBI’s Indianapolis office, W. Jay Abbott, spoke with Stephen Penny, then president of the United States Gymnastics, about getting Abbott a job on the Olympic Committee. .
The inspector general said that Abbott applied for the job but did not get it, and when he was confronted with it in 2019, he erroneously claimed to the inspector general that he had not applied for the job. Penny resigned under pressure from her job at USA Gymnastics in 2017 and in 2018 was accused of manipulating evidence in the case of sex abuse. These charges were dismissed last month. Abbott withdrew from the FBI.
Langeman and Abbott did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
One of the main failures of the FBI in the Nassar case was not to warn state authorities about the possibility that he could commit sexual crimes against children – crimes that state prosecutors could, and ultimately did, charge him with.
In response to this criticism, Justice Department officials have asked federal prosecutors and agents to coordinate more closely with state and local law enforcement agencies on potential crimes that may fall outside federal law but may still be worth pursuing.
“Even in cases where the federal government cannot raise its own criminal charges, our obligation to protect victims of crime and ensure public safety does not cease,” Monaco wrote in a memo from the Department of Justice. “Instead, proper coordination with state, local, or tribal law enforcement partners may become more important, especially in light of apparent, persistent criminal behavior that puts victims at risk.”