3 hours ago
US female athletes have sued the FBI for $1 billion in damages for “mismanaging the investigation” into sexual abuse by doctor Larry Nassar.
Nassar, 58, is serving a life sentence following pleading guilty to charges of sexually assaulting female athletes while working as a sports doctor for them at Michigan State University.
Hundreds of female athletes, some of them Olympic gold medalists, have accused Nassar of sexual abuse during his decades as a sports doctor.
Dozens of female athletes have filed lawsuits once morest the FBI, according to law firms that are following the case.
Ninety women and girls complain that the FBI has not taken the necessary steps to protect them.
The complaint once morest the FBI comes days following the Justice Department announced that it would not file an indictment once morest two FBI agents over allegations of mismanagement of Nassar’s case.
“I and the rest of the survivors feel let down by the institutions that were supposed to protect us, the US Olympic Committee, the US Sports Authority, the FBI and now the Department of Justice,” Kayla Maroney, a gold medalist, said in a statement. PI, but it turns out that the only way to get justice and heal wounds is through the law.”
Law firms said that the FBI received credible complaints in July 2015 regarding Nassar’s sexual abuse and might have stopped him at the time, but he failed to do so and did not listen to the complaints. As a result, Nassar continued his sexual assaults on regarding 90 young women and girls between July July 2015 and September 2016.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment and referred the reporters to testimony that bureau director Christopher Wray gave to the Senate in 2021.
Addressing Nassar’s victims, Ray said, “I am particularly sorry that there were people in the FBI who were able to stop that monster in 2015 and they didn’t. This cannot be tolerated. This should not have happened.”
Nassar’s victims reached a $380 million settlement with the American Sports Authority last year, the largest sum ever received by victims of sexual abuse, and led to the authority filing for bankruptcy.
The University of Michigan reached a $500 million settlement with hundreds of Nassar victims in 2018.
