Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and over 90 women are suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation for over $1 billion over dismissed probe of sports doctor Larry Nassar
The lawsuit comes two weeks after the Justice Department decided against prosecuting two former FBI agents who allegedly botched the intelligence agency’s 2015 investigation into Mr Nassar, allowing him to assault girls for over a year before his arrest. The agents were accused by the Justice Department’s own watchdog of making false statements about the matter.
Olympic gymnastics gold medalists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, national gymnastics medalist Maggie Nichols, former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy and former gymnast Kaylee Lorincz are among the plaintiffs seeking justice for decades of abuse from Mr Nasser.
“My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us — the U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S.A. Gymnastics, the F.B.I. and now the Department of Justice,” Ms Maroney said, as quoted by The New York Times. “It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is through the legal process.”
The plaintiffs total claims will exceed $1 billion, according to their lawyer, John C. Manly.
Mr Nassar wasn’t arrested until fall 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police, where he served as a doctor at Michigan State.
The Michigan attorney general’s office handled the assault charges against Mr Nassar, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case. He is current serving decades in prison.
Michigan State University also agreed to pay $500 million to over 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.
