Watchdog claims FBI mismanaged US gymnastics sexual abuse allegations – NBC Boston

[ad_1]

The FBI made fundamental errors in investigating allegations of sexual abuse against former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar and did not take the matter seriously, the FBI said on Wednesday. Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice. More and more athletes have said they were assaulted before the FBI took action.

The FBI has admitted inexcusable conduct and discredit “for the top US law enforcement agency and all.

The long-awaited surveillance report raises troubling questions about how the Department and the FBI handled the case, and it highlights the major FBI missteps between when the allegations were first reported and the arrest of Nassars.

The Inspector General’s investigation was spurred by allegations that the FBI failed to promptly address the 2015 complaints against Nassar. USA Gymnastics had conducted its own internal investigation, and then the organization’s president, Stephen Penny, reported the allegations to the FBI field office in Indianapolis. But it was months before the office opened a formal investigation.

At least 40 girls and women said they were assaulted over a 14-month period as the FBI was aware of other allegations of sexual abuse involving Nassar. USA Gymnastics officials also contacted FBI officials in Los Angeles in May 2016 after eight months of agent inactivity in Indianapolis.

The Inspector General’s office found that despite the extraordinarily serious nature of the allegations against Nassar, FBI officials in Indianapolis did not respond with the utmost seriousness and urgency they deserved and that they had demanded.

When responding, according to the report, FBI officials made many fundamental mistakes and also violated office policies. Among the missteps was the failure of any investigative activity for up to more than a month after a meeting with USA Gymnastics. Officers interviewed one of the three athletes by phone, but never spoke with two other gymnasts despite being told they were available to meet with them.

The watchdog’s investigation also revealed that when the FBI’s field offices in Indianapolis came under scrutiny, officials took no responsibility for the missteps and gave incomplete and inaccurate information. internal FBI investigations.

The FBI berated its own employees for failing to act in the case and said it shouldn’t have happened.

The actions and inactions of some FBI employees described in the report are inexcusable and discredit that organization, the agency said in a statement.

The FBI has taken positive steps to ensure and confirmed those responsible for the misconduct and breach of trust are no longer working on FBI business, the statement said. We will take all necessary steps to ensure that the employee failures described in the report do not recur.

The Inspector General interviewed an FBI Surveillance Special Agent last September who said the original allegations reported by Penny and USA Gymnastics were very vague and called Penny’s credibility into question, describing him as some sort of salesperson. snake oil.

This special agent also told investigators that the Indianapolis field office did not appear to have jurisdiction to investigate because the alleged crimes did not take place in Indiana. This agent and an FBI supervisor at the office said they told Penny to contact local law enforcement, a claim contradicted by Penny and the chairman of the board of USA Gymnastics.

The FBI said the special surveillance agent violated several policies and the agency took immediate action when it learned that the agent failed to properly document complaints of sexual abuse, mismanaged evidence and did not report the abuse.

Nassar was ultimately charged in 2016 with federal child pornography offenses and sexual abuse charges in Michigan.

He is now serving decades in prison after hundreds of girls and women say he sexually assaulted them under the guise of medical treatment while working for USA Gymnastics, based in Michigan and Indiana, which trains Olympians.

The Inspector General’s office said it reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed more than 60 witnesses, including several victims, their parents, prosecutors and current and former FBI employees.

The FBI’s handling of the case has been strongly condemned by members of Congress, and some senators have called on Inspector General Michael Horowitz, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland to testify on the case.

We are appalled by the FBI’s mismanagement of the specific warnings its agents received about the horrific abuse of Larry Nassars years before he was finally arrested, said Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., And Jerry Moran, R-Kan.

USA Gymnastics is still reeling from the fallout from the Nassar scandal six years after Penny first approached authorities. The national sports governing body has undergone a massive overhaul of its leadership. Current president Li Li Leung is the fourth person to hold the post since the 2016 Olympics and security protocols in hopes of providing better protection for athletes.

USA Gymnastics also remains in court as it continues to mediate with dozens of Nassar survivors, although Leung is hopeful that a settlement can be found by the end of the year.

Ultimately, what happened is something we learn from and use the past to inform about how we are moving forward, Leung told reporters last month.

The report came on the same day that the 2021 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team, a group that includes reigning world and Olympic champion and Nassar abuse survivor Simone Biles, traveled to Tokyo for the Games.

___

Associated Press writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

[ad_2]