Taxpayers foot $138.7 million bill for DOJ's failure to stop sexual assaults; hush money silenced victim
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has settled more than 100 cases against it for enabling sexual assault by failing to follow up on earlier complaints of assault against predator Larry Nassar, then a sports doctor at Michigan State University (MSU) and team doctor at USA Gymnastics (USAG).
Gross mishandling of investigation
The victims will collectively receive $138.7 million after accusing the “FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault” against the Lebanese-American doctor, who is now serving a 60-year sentence for possession of 37,000 images of child pornography, including images of children as young as infants, in addition to two sentences of at least 40 years each for criminal sexual conduct, with some victims under age 13.
"Critical time gap"
According to the AP, the DOJ failed to properly investigate, “allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.”
The report quoted Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer as saying that the “allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset.” In all, Nassar sexually abused hundreds of victims ”under the guise of medical treatment."
No time to interview assault victims
When star gymnasts first filed their lawsuit against the DOJ, Frontline News reported on the timeline presented by their lawyers describing the FBI’s failure and the preventable assaults on additional victims.
. . . the FBI received credible complaints in July 2015 of Nassar’s sexual assaults and was then able to immediately end Nassar’s predation.
However, the FBI was grossly derelict in their duties by declining to interview gymnasts who were willing to talk about the abuse. As a result, Nassar continued his predatory behavior, sexually assaulting approximately 90 young women and children [after the July 2015 reports to the FBI]. [Emphasis added.]
FBI “serving innocent children up to a pedophile, on a silver platter”
Gymnast Aly Raisman accused the FBI, of both providing a pedophile with victims and gaslighting her:
. . . serving innocent children up to a pedophile, on a silver platter …
[The FBI] made me feel my abuse didn't count.
[An FBI agent was] trying to convince me that it wasn't that bad. [Emphasis added.]
FBI agent ”falsified statement"
Gymnast McKayla Maroney testified before the Senate that the FBI “falsified her statement.”
She recalled sitting on her bedroom floor in 2015 telling the FBI on the phone "all of my molestations in extreme detail … I cried, and there was just silence" on the part of the FBI agent. She said the FBI then falsified her statement [to downplay the molestation]. [Emphasis added.]
“Hush money”
More disturbing about Maroney's case is her claim that she was forced into silence with a hush money payment that obligated her to keep quiet about her pedophile predator, as reported by CBS Sports:
According to Maroney's attorney, John Manly, USA Gymnastics gave Maroney $1.25 million to convince her to sign a confidentiality agreement in 2016. That agreement served as a concerted effort to keep Maroney from going public about being sexually abused by Nassar, who served as the team doctor for USA Gymnastics for more than two decades.
The lawsuit says that Maroney, who was 21 years old at the time, willingly signed the agreement, but because she essentially had no other choice.
Manly added that the USAG was concerned only with its reputation:
"I want people to understand that this kid had no choice. She couldn't function. She couldn't work," Manly said. "They [USAG] were willing to sacrifice the health and well-being of one of the most famous gymnasts in the world because they didn't want the world to know they were protecting a pedophile doctor." [Emphasis added.]
Over $1 billion in total compensation
USAG and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) made a separate $380 million settlement with more than 500 sexual assault victims as compensation for the hush money payment and other behavior that enabled continued abuse which created, “the largest sexual abuse scandal in the history of the U.S. Olympic movement.”
In a third lawsuit, government funded MSU, “which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted,” bringing the total compensation for victims of the government's inaction to over $1 billion.
None of that money will be paid by employees of the DOJ, MSU or any other government funded agency or institution. Taxpayers will foot most of the bill while the non-profit USAG declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy to limit its exposure.
Government admits fault
At a Senate hearing in 2021, FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted the FBI's negligence when he addressed survivors:
I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again. And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.” [Emphasis added.]
Government backs agents anyway
Despite the admission of agents fault and the settlement, the DOJ decided that no charges will be brought against the FBI agents who disregarded the sexual abuse accusations by America’s top gymnasts, prompting criticism from one of the gymnasts.
My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us — the US Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, the FBI and now the Department of Justice. I had some hope that they would keep their word and hold the FBI accountable. It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is through the legal process.
The FBI, for its part, still prominently posts this message on their website, “We protect the American people and uphold the U.S. Constitution.”
DOJ doesn't even prosecute attacks on federal agents
The DOJ has even failed to prosecute many cases of violence even when that violence was directed at its own agents.
Federal prosecutors have dismissed more than one-third of cases stemming from last summer’s violent [ANTIFA] protests in downtown Portland, when protesters clashed with federal agents …
Some of the most serious charges dropped include four defendants charged with assaulting a federal officer, which is a felony. More than half of the dropped charges were "dismissed with prejudice," which several former federal prosecutors described as extremely rare.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley notes the lack of interest in obtaining a strong sentence even in the case of an ax attack:
The self-avowed Antifa member took an axe to the office of Sen. John Hoeven’s in Fargo on Dec. 21, 2020. Federal sentencing guidelines suggested 10–16 months in prison but he was only sentenced to probation and fined $2,784 for restitution . . . he then reportedly mocked the FBI for returning his axe.
The Antifa member's post stated,
Look what the FBI were kind enough to give back to me!
Trespassers of federal property also get pass (before Jan 6)
The federal government made clear, before January 6, 2021, that protestors on federal property will only be charged in cases of violence, not mere trespassing.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to prosecuting people who impede or assault law enforcement officers, damage federal property, and set fire to buildings. Make no mistake: those who commit violence in the name of protest, will be investigated, arrested, prosecuted, and face prison time. [Emphases added].
Trespass on Jan 6 - a different story
Lest one get the impression of a pervasive laziness among FBI agents to prosecute crimes, just the opposite was found when the agency was faced with mostly non-violent protestors standing on federal property on January 6, 2021, including America's Frontline Doctors' (AFLDS') Creative Director John Strand.
Related articles:
- FBI fails to act on evidence of planned shootings
- Police plant drugs on minorities to meet arrest quotas
- Police chiefs discourage violent crime complaints to give appearance of reduced crime
- FBI - No time to interview rape victims; plenty for Jan 6 trespass
- 'Hate crime' laws selectively enforced
- FBI won't investigate Politico for Supreme Court leak; raided Project Veritas over leaked diary
Feature image of Aly Raisman licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
