Over 90 Nassar Victims Sue FBI for Failing to Probe Sexual Assault Cases Sooner - NYT

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - More than 90 women who claim to have been sexually assaulted by former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar will file lawsuits against the FBI for failing to investigate the allegations sooner, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Nassar was on the team doctors of the US women's national gymnastics team for 18 years and had access to hundreds of girls and young women whom he sexually abused. More than 260 women and girls have claimed they were assaulted by him.

Former gymnasts, including gold medalists Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman, were among those who filed lawsuits against the FBI, for which the total claims exceed $1 billion, the report said.

“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,” Maroney said in a statement cited in the report. “It is clear that the only path to justice is through the legal process.”

Nassar, 85, was sentenced to 60 years in prison in December 2017 on child pornography charges. Nassar later received two more sentences of 40 to 175 years and 40 to 125 years in state prison on sexual assault charges in 2018.

A Justice Department Office of the Inspector General review of the FBI’s investigation found that senior officials with the Indianapolis field office failed to respond to allegations against Nassar, made numerous fundamental errors and violated multiple FBI policies.

However, the Justice Department last month announced that they would not bring charges against two former FBI agents accused of mishandling the probe.

The women suing the FBI claim that they were abused between July 2015 when the FBI first received evidence of Nassar’s crimes and August 2016 when local law enforcement ultimately took action against Nassar following a separate complaint.

“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy said in a statement.

USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee in December reached a $380 million settlement with some of Nassar’s victims, including Biles, Raisman and Maroney.