Thirteen Nassar Survivors Seek $130 Million From FBI Over Handling of Abuse Allegations

Thirteen women who say they were sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University team doctor Larry Nassar are asking the FBI to pay them a combined $130 million, arguing the bureau failed to act after learning of accusations against him.

Attorneys based in Michigan submitted the claims on Thursday, with each woman seeking $10 million. The filings drew heavily on a report released in July by the Justice Department's inspector general. That report found that the FBI's Indianapolis field office was told of Nassar-related allegations by USA Gymnastics in July 2015, but that agents there did relatively little. The sports organization reported Nassar again in May 2016, this time to the FBI's Los Angeles field office. According to the report, agents there did more work on the case but still took no action against Nassar and did not alert local authorities, despite having reason to suspect he was committing crimes.

Michigan state officials ultimately arrested and charged Nassar in November 2016. The FBI's local field office in that state learned of the allegations only through news coverage and an investigation that Michigan State University police began that year, the report found.

"Despite credible reports to the FBI, Nassar continued his reign of terror for almost 17 unnecessary months," said Jamie White, an attorney for the 13 women. He added that Nassar kept access to countless girls almost daily during that time, and that an unthinkable and unnecessary number of assaults took place.

White's firm has not yet filed a lawsuit. Instead, it is using a process under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which requires administrative claims to be submitted to the federal agency involved. The agency then has six months to accept or deny them. If no resolution is reached in that period, the women could sue for personal injury.

White spoke at an online media session alongside Grace French, a former dancer and gymnast who was abused by Nassar and helped found a group called the Army of Survivors. "No one should have been assaulted after the summer of 2015, because the FBI should have done its job," she said. White said the case was not one involving fake $20 bills or tax cheats, but allegations against a serial rapist known to the FBI as the Olympic U.S. doctor, with unfettered access to young women.

The FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday evening. Earlier in the day it pointed to remarks by Director Christopher Wray at a September Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Olympic medalists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney were among those who testified. Wray told them he was sorry that so many people let them down, and especially sorry that FBI personnel had their own chance to stop Nassar in 2015 and failed.

The legal filing also quoted Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who said at that hearing that 120 young women had been victimized because the FBI did nothing. Last month, Blumenthal and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., asked Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department to review the bureau's handling of the case and to ensure accountability for agents who knew of the abuse, did nothing and then lied about their inaction.

The inspector general's report concluded that senior officials in the Indianapolis office failed to respond with the seriousness and urgency required, made numerous fundamental errors and violated multiple FBI policies. Among its recommendations was that the agency clarify when agents must notify local authorities about crimes against children.

Nassar, 58, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison, serving concurrent state sentences of 40 to 125 years and 40 to 175 years for sexual assault, plus a 60-year federal term on child pornography charges. Those proceedings took place between 2017 and 2018. Michigan State agreed in 2018 to pay $500 million to settle claims from more than 300 alleged victims, and in December gymnasts reached a $380 million settlement with USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.