Courtney Balcombe

News Editor

clb6264@psu.edu

Former Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols, and Aly Raisman appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 15th as part of a two-part investigation on the FBI’s mishandling of the original investigation into the former Olympic doctor, Larry Nassar.

Nassar is currently serving a 40-to-175 year sentence in prison after more than 150 women and girls said he sexually abused them. Michigan State, the university he worked for, was fined $4.5 million by the federal government over its handling of Nassar and his crimes after investigators found Michigan State didn’t adequately respond to the complaints about him.

Biles tearfully said she blames Nassar and also “an entire system that allowed his abuse,” including USA Gymnastics, USAG, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

The four gymnasts appeared before the Senate committee along with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and FBI Director Christopher Wray, who also testified Wednesday.

According to NPR, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill., called the FBI’s handling of the case “a stain on the bureau.”

“In the 15 months that FBI officials shirked their responsibility, Nassar abused at least 70 young athletes,” Durbin said. “For many of them, this was a continuation, but for others, they were abused for the first time while the FBI sat on the case.”

According to ESPN, the FBI agents failed to respond with the “seriousness and urgency” required after first hearing reports about Nassar’s abuse in the summer of 2015.

After a recent report was published by Horowitz, who had found that agents mishandled evidence and later made false statements to investigators about the mistakes they made.

“As our report further details, Larry Nassar’s abuses very well could and should have been stopped sooner, if appropriate action had been taken by the FBI in response to the courageous actions of these athletes.” The report said. “Not only did that not occur, but after the FBI agents’ inadequate and incompetent response came to light, FBI records were created that falsely summarized the testimony of an athlete who had spent hours detailing the abuses she endured, and inaccurately described the FBI’s handling of the matter.”

On September 14th, The Washington Post first reported that the FBI had fired former supervisory special agent Michael Langeman, who had worked in the Indianapolis field office.

Langeman had interviewed Maroney in 2015 about Nassar’s sexual assaults during purported treatment sessions.

Maroney said Nassar, “turned out to be more of a pedophile than he was a doctor.” She recalled sitting on her bedroom floor in 2015 telling the FBI on the phone “all of my molestations in extreme detail.” 

Maroney continued that after describing instances of abuse by Nassar, including before she won the team gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012, “I cried, and there was just silence” on the part of the FBI agent.

According to the Office of Inspector General’s report, Langeman failed to pursue Maroney’s allegations against Nassar and lied to investigators when asked about the failures of the Indianapolis field office to act in a timely manner, the Post reported.

Raisman addressed the Senate saying she felt as though the FBI made her feel like her “abuse didn’t count.” She recalled sitting with an FBI agent and him “trying to convince me that it wasn’t that bad.”She continued that it took her “years of therapy to realize my abuse was bad, that it does matter.”

Raisman later added that “all we needed was for one adult to do the right thing.”

After the four gymnasts’ testimonies, Wray said that the “kinds of fundamental errors that were made in this case in 2015 and 2016 should have never happened, period.”

“I and my entire senior leadership team will make damn sure everybody at the FBI remembers what happened here in heartbreaking detail,” Wray said, later adding that the FBI has instituted policy changes recommended in the inspector general’s report. “We need to remember the pain that occurred when our people failed to do their jobs. We need to study it. We need to learn from it.”

Biles also called for officials from USAG, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, USOPC, to be held accountable.

“This is the largest case of sexual abuse in the history of American sport, and although there has been an independent investigation of the FBI’s handling of the case,” Biles said. “Neither USAG nor the USOPC has ever been made the subject of the same level of scrutiny.”