Gymnasts' Lawsuit Against FBI

A body representing 90 young women – including US Olympic team gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman – filed federal tort claims against the FBI on Wednesday, seeking more than $1 billion in damages for the bureau’s mishandling of their investigation into sexual abuse by former US Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar. 

The majority of the claimants say Nassar abused them after his abuse was reported to the FBI in 2015, during a year-long period in which no meaningful investigative action was taken and Nassar continued to sexually abuse young women, primarily minors. Many are athletes who were associated with the USA Gymnastics program or with Michigan State University, where Nassar maintained a clinic. 

There were 125 victims who reported that the doctor abused them, including prominent Olympic gymnasts. On November 22, 2017, Nassar (left) pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with minors under the age of sixteen. He admitted to molesting seven girls, three of whom were under the age of thirteen. And on February 05, 2018, he was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. 

Just before the Memorial Day weekend, the Justice Department announced that the individual FBI agents whom the inspector general identified as responsible for the failure of the investigation – and for subsequent attempts to mislead investigators for the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General – would not face charges. 

“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 (right) according to NBC, the first Nassar victim whose case was reported to the FBI. 

And Maroney (left), an Olympic gold medalist put out a statement: “My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us – the US Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, the FBI and now the Department of Justice. It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is through the legal process”. 

The FBI and the Justice Department have yet to comment, NBC said. However, in a testimony to Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged that “people at the FBI had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed”. 

The Collective Administrative Claims are being filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which enables people who have been harmed by negligent or wrongful actions of the US federal government to seek redress.