13 Larry Nassar survivors seek $130M from FBI over botched probe

Thirteen Larry Nassar victims of sexual assault are seeking $10,000,000 each from the FBI. They claim that an erroneous investigation by agents resulted in more abuse by the lawyers and sports doctor. said Thursday.

It’s an effort to make the government responsible for assaults that occurred after July 2015. The Justice Department’s inspector general concluded that the FBI made fundamental errors when it became aware of allegations against Nassar that year.

Nassar was both a Michigan State University doctor and a USA Gymnastics doctor. For assaulting female gymnasts, including Olympic medal-winning Olympic gymnasts, he is currently serving decades behind bars.

“This was not a case involving fake 20 dollar bills or tax cheats,” attorney Jamie White said. “These were allegations of a serial rapist who was known to the FBI as the Olympic U.S. doctor with unfettered access to young women.”

Nassar, he added, continued a “reign of terror for 17 unnecessary months.”

An email was sent to the FBI asking for comments.

White has not yet filed a lawsuit against the FBI. Federal law requires that tort claims be filed with the government agency. The agency then has six months to respond. A lawsuit could follow, depending on the FBI’s response.

“No one should have been assaulted after the summer of 2015 because the FBI should have done its job,” saidGrace French, founder of The Army of Survivors. “To know that the FBI could have helped to avoid this trauma disgusts me.”

White noted the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The FBI received a tip about five weeks before 17 people were killed at the school, but the tip was never forwarded to the FBI’s South Florida office. The government paid $127.5 million to the families of those who were killed or injured.

USA Gymnastics from Indianapolis, which is based in 2015, claimed that three gymnasts had been involved in the Nassar incident. saidThey were attacked by Nassar. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan, according to the inspector general’s report.

Los Angeles FBI agents in 2016 began a sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and interviewed several victims but also didn’t alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.

Christopher Wray, FBI Director, publicly apologized for the way agents handled this matter.

“I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again,” he told victims at a Senate hearing last September. “And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that’s inexcusable. It never should have happened.”

White saidOver 100 women were attacked after July 2015 and he anticipates that other lawyers will file lawsuits against the FBI. Nassar wasn’t arrested until November 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police.

The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case against Nassar.

Michigan State University, also accused of not being able to stop Nassar from entering the country, has agreed to pay $500,000,000 to over 300 victims. USA Gymnastics and U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee reached a $380 million settlement.