A group of 90 women, including United States Olympic team gymnasts, filed lawsuits on Wednesday, 8 June, against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), seeking more than $1 billion in damages for its failure to investigate sexual abuse by former US Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar, even though it had credible information about his crimes.
This comes two weeks after the Justice Department decided against prosecuting two former FBI agents accused of mishandling the 2015 investigation against him.
This had given him the leeway to assault girls for a year before being arrested by Michigan authorities.
The plaintiffs include the Olympic gymnastics gold medalists Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles and the national gymnastics medalist Maggie Nichols, as well as the former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy, who is now an advocate of sexual assault survivors.
"My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us. It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is through the legal process."Olympic gymnastics gold medalist McKayla Maroney
What Did the FBI Do?
The FBI field office in Indianapolis had evidence of his crimes in 2015. Maroney, among others, recorded detailed testimonies and went through extensive interviews with agents. Despite this, they took no action to ramp up Nasar's investigation or stop him.
The claims made by the plaintiffs reveal a one-year gap between when the FBI first received reports of Nassar misconduct and his arrest, which happened because not because of the FBI, but a local law enforcement investigation.
Previous Cases Filed
The cases are being filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which lets people harmed by negligent or wrongful actions of the federal government seek redress.
Thirteen other survivors had filed similar cases against the FBI in April as well.
While Wednesday’s filing was not the first, it is by far the largest, and it includes prominent women from among Nassar's accusers.
Although the plaintiffs are demanding different amounts in damages, their total claims will exceed $1 billion, according to their lawyer, John C Manly's statement.
The FBI knew that Larry Nassar was a danger to children when his abuse of me was first reported in September of 2015.NCAA national champion gymnast Maggie Nichols
She added that they had worked with USA Gymnastics and USOPC (U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee) to keep this information from people and allowed Nassar to continue abusing young women and girls.
What Has the FBI said?
The FBI and the Justice Department were unavailable to comment on this when contacted by NBC News.
However, in a testimony to Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray had acknowledged that the FBI had failed to stop Nassar in 2015 when they had the chance.
Background
Nassar, who was accused of sexually assaulting girls and women, including many members of the 2012 and 2016 US Olympic women’s gymnastics teams, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty in 2018 to abusing more than 10 of the 265 patients who alleged that they had been molested.
(With inputs from The New York Times and NBC News.)
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