DETROIT — More than a dozen victims of former Michigan State University sports doctor Larry Nassar filed claims against the FBI for the bureau's "grossly negligent failure to investigate sexual abuse allegations" against the now-incarcerated former physician, lawyers plan to announce Thursday.
The 13 claimants are seeking $10 million each, according to their lawyer, Jamie White. All were victimized by Nassar after July 2015, when the FBI Indianapolis office was first alerted to reports of three alleged sexual assaults. Another 17 months passed before Nassar was arrested by MSU police, White said during a media briefing. More claims could be forthcoming, he added.
Among them is Michigan native Grace French, who is president of The Army of Survivors, an advocacy group, and was assaulted by Nassar.
The claims, submitted this week to the Office of General Counsel for the FBI, come after the U.S. Justice Department said in October that it would review a previous decision to decline prosecution against two former FBI agents who were aware of complaints against Nassar.
Victims have accused the FBI of bungling 2015 allegations against Nassar.
"The FBI field offices in Indianapolis and Los Angeles completely failed to follow policy, leaving Nassar completely free to commit unspeakable sexual assaults on many victims," according to one of the claims, filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The victim's name was redacted from the complaint.
The FBI did not immediately respond to messages left by The Detroit News.
An internal investigation by the Justice Department released in July said the FBI made fundamental errors in the probe and did not treat the case with the "utmost seriousness" after USA Gymnastics first reported the allegations to the FBI's field office in Indianapolis in 2015.
The FBI has acknowledged its own conduct was inexcusable. In a congressional hearing in September, FBI Director Christopher Wray blasted his own agents who failed to appropriately respond to the complaints and made a promise to the victims that he was committed to "make damn sure everybody at the FBI remembers what happened here," and that it never happens again.
Wray said at the time the agency had recently fired one of the two agents in Indianapolis criticized in the IG report, Michael Langeman.
But he said the agency was limited in its ability to go after the other agent, W. Jay Abbott, as he retired from the agency in 2018 amid the internal investigation.
The Justice Department declined to prosecute Abbott and Langeman in September 2020, according to the IG report. In October, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, then the newly confirmed assistant AG for the department's criminal division, told the Senate Judiciary Committee she would be taking a second look at the FBI's alleged failure to promptly address complaints reported in 2015 against Nassar.
Nassar sexually abused and sexually assaulted dozens of girls and young women over a 20-year period while at MSU and with USA Gymnastics.
Nassar was sentenced in Ingham and Eaton counties to 40-175 years and 40-125 years, respectively, for criminal sexual misconduct while a sports doctor at Michigan State University. He also was sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges.
