More than 90 women filed lawsuits against the FBI for its failure to investigate the former U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Lawrence Nassar for sexual assault when it received credible information about his crimes.
The women state they were all sexually assaulted by Nassar.
The lawsuit comes two weeks after the Department of Justice decided that it would not prosecute two former FBI agents accused of bungling their investigation in 2015 into Nassar.
The FBI’s delay meant he was allowed to assault more than 70 women and girls for more than a year before he was arrested by Michigan authorities.
The Justice Department’s own watchdog accused the agents of making false statements about the matter.
In fall 2021, F.B.I. director Christopher Wray testified to Congress that there were people at the agency “who had their chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”
But the Justice Department said it will not be moving forward with prosecuting the agents in what Wray said was “gross misconduct,” because there was not enough evidence for a federal criminal case.
Ninety women disagree.
Plaintiffs include the Olympic gymnastics gold medalists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and McKayla Maroney. They also include national gymnastics medalist Maggie Nichols, former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy, as well as the former Michigan State University gymnast Kaylee Lorincz, who now works as an advocate for sexual assault victims.
“My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us,” Maroney said, specifying that this includes the U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S.A. Gymnastics, the FBI, and the Justice Department.
Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. He was accused of molesting and sexually assaulting hundreds of girls and women, including many members of the Olympic gymnastics teams.
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