Simone Biles, along with dozens of former Olympic gymnasts, is suing the FBI for failing to stop sports physician Larry Nassar, who was charged in 2016 with federal child pornography offenses and sexual abuse. The plaintiffs include nearly 90 Olympians, including Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.
“It is time for the FBI to be held accountable,” Maggie Nichols, a national champion gymnast at Oklahoma in 2017-2019, told the Associated Press.
According to the Justice Department’s inspector general, an internal watchdog, the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan after USA Gymnastics provided reports from three athletes who said they were assaulted by Nassar in 2015.
“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy said, according to the Associated Press.
Nassar, who was a doctor at Michigan State, wasn’t arrested until 2016, during an investigation by police at the school.
While Michigan’s attorney general’s office later handled the assault charges, federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case against Nassar, who is now serving decades in prison.
Michigan State University agreed to a $500 million settlement, paying more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted, after being accused of failing to stop Nassar.
