(Detroit) Thirteen of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse victims are seeking $10 million each from the FBI, alleging that a botched investigation by its agents resulted in more victims of the doctor, their lawyers said Thursday.
Posted at 5:04 p.m.
The goal is to hold the government accountable for abuse cases that occurred after 2015. The US Department of Justice’s inspector general concluded last year that the FBI made fundamental errors when it was made aware allegations against Nassar that year.
Nassar was a sports physician at Michigan State University as well as USA Gymnastics, the national federation. He is currently serving a prison sentence of several decades for assaulting young women, including Olympic medalists in gymnastics.
Lawyer Jamie White said the children have been asked for years to report any issues of this nature and when they did so to the highest authority in the land, they were rebuffed. He believes that his customers have received “a slap in the face”.
At this time, White is not suing the FBI. US federal law provides that such claims must be made to government agencies, which then have six months to respond. A lawsuit can then be brought.
The FBI declined to comment Thursday, but recalled Director Christopher Wray’s comments to Congress about how the case was mishandled.
According to the group Army of Survivors, “no one should have been assaulted after 2015 if the FBI had done its job properly”.
After receiving numerous complaints about Nassar, the FBI took months to open its investigation. Nassar was finally arrested in November 2016.