DOJ Watchdog report: FBI messed up Nassar sex abuse investigation

According to a report the Justice Department’s inspector general released Wednesday, the FBI made major mistakes in the sex abuse investigation of former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar. The report went on to say the FBI did not take the investigation as seriously as it could.

The report was called for after the FBI was accused of failing to promptly address complaints made against Nassar. USA Gymnastics conducted its own investigation after complaints were made in 2015. The organization’s then-president, Stephen Penny, reported the allegations to the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis.

It took 14 months before the bureau opened a formal investigation. Officials at USA Gymnastics contacted FBI officials in Los Angeles after eight months of inactivity from agents in Indianapolis. In that 14-month stretch, at least 40 girls and women said they were molested by Nassar.

The report found “despite the extraordinarily serious nature” of the allegations, the FBI’s Indianapolis officials did not respond with the “utmost seriousness and urgency that the allegations deserved and required.”

Once FBI officials met with USA Gymnastics, it took them another month to begin investigating. They talked with one athlete, but didn’t talk to two others who told officials they were available.

This was just one of the “numerous and fundamental errors” the report cited. It also said the officials violated bureau policies.

The FBI responded to the report in a statement.

“This should not have happened. The FBI will never lose sight of the harm that Nassar’s abuse caused,” The FBI said. “The actions and inactions of certain FBI employees described in the report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization.”

The FBI went onto say it is taking steps to making sure the officials involved no longer work for the FBI, and their failures do not happen again.

“As a continuation of these efforts, the FBI is fully committed to implementing all of the recommendations made by the Inspector General,” the FBI said.