DOJ Pays Gymnasts $138 Million Settlement for FBI Misconduct in Larry Nassar Sex Assault Cases
By Sundance
In 2021 the DOJ Inspector General released an absolutely damning investigation of FBI conduct in the rape and sexual assault of U.S. Gymnasts. The IG report revealed how FBI agents facilitated Larry Nassar’s sex crimes by taking no action despite numerous witness statements to them.
Worse yet, the FBI never reported evidence of the sexual assaults to local law enforcement – and to top it off, the FBI agents lied during the investigation of their conduct. The DOJ under AG Bill Barr refused to prosecute the FBI liars, but today the DOJ gave the gymnasts $138 million, bringing the total lawsuit settlement to over a billion dollars.
Michigan State University gave $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee settled for $380 million, and today the DOJ settled for $138 million. No one in the FBI was ever held accountable.
DETROIT — The U.S. Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
When combined with other settlements, $1 billion now has been set aside by various organizations to compensate hundreds of women who said Nassar assaulted them under the guise of treatment for sports injuries. (read more)
Inspector General Report HERE
IG Report Excerpt – […] “The OIG found that, 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.
The Indianapolis Field Office did not undertake any investigative activity until September 2nd, five weeks after the meeting with USA Gymnastics—when they telephonically interviewed one of the three athletes. Further, FBI Indianapolis never interviewed the other two gymnasts who they were told were available to meet with FBI investigators.
This absence of any serious investigative activity was compounded when the Indianapolis Field Office did not transfer the matter to the FBI office (the Lansing Resident Agency), where venue most likely would have existed had evidence been developed to support the potential federal crimes being considered, even though the Indianapolis office had been advised to do so by the USAO and had told USA Gymnastics that the transfer had occurred.
Additionally, the Indianapolis office did not notify state or local authorities of the sexual assault allegations even though it questioned whether there was federal jurisdiction to pursue them. As a result, the Lansing Resident Agency did not learn of the Nassar allegations until over a year after they were first reported to the FBI and then learned of them only from the MSUPD.
Moreover, the FBI conducted no investigative activity in the matter for more than 8 months following the September 2015 interview. During that period of time, as alleged and detailed in numerous civil complaints, Nassar’s sexual assaults continued.” (read full report)