Raisman, Biles, Maroney among 90 women asking FBI for $1 billion for mishandling Larry Nassar sex abuse case
Ninety women, including Olympic gymnasts Biles, Maroney and Raisman, want $1 billion from the FBI for botching the investigation of sex abuse by Olympic Team doctor Larry Nassar.
A group representing 90 young women — including U.S. Olympic team gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman — filed federal tort claims against the FBI on Wednesday, seeking more than $1 billion in damages for the bureau’s mishandling of its investigation into sexual abuse by former U.S. Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar.
The majority of the claimants say Nassar abused them after his abuse was reported to the FBI in 2015, during a yearlong period in which no meaningful investigative action was taken and Nassar continued to sexually abuse young women and children. Many are athletes who were associated with the USA Gymnastics program or with Michigan State University, where Nassar maintained a clinic.
The Justice Department announced just before the Memorial Day weekend that the individual FBI agents whom the inspector general identified as responsible for the failure of the investigation — and for subsequent attempts to mislead investigators for the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General — would not face charges.
Larry Nassar is sentenced in Eaton County Circuit Court in Charlotte, Mich., on Feb. 5, 2018.Scott Olson / Getty Images file“My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us — the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, the FBI and now the Department of Justice,” Maroney, an Olympic gold medalist, said in a statement. “It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is through the legal process.”
The Collective Administrative Claims are being filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which enables people who have been harmed by negligent or wrongful actions of the federal government to seek redress.
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