Olympic gymnast from the United States (US), Simone Biles, holding back tears while speaking before US lawmakers. He told how the FBI and US gymnastics and Olympic officials failed to stop the sexual abuse he and hundreds of other athletes suffered from former doctor Larry Nassar.
“To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame the entire system that allowed and perpetrated his abuse,” he told the US Senate Judiciary Committee alongside fellow gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols. Reuters, Thursday (16/9/2021).
Biles said USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee had failed to act. He also accused the FBI of turning a blind eye to the case.
The emotional trial cast a damning picture of the FBI, which badly damaged Nassar’s investigation, allowing him to continue to abuse more victims for more than a year before he was finally arrested.
FBI Director Chris Wray made no excuses and said the bureau had fired one of the agents who falsified details of gymnast Maroney’s 2015 interview about the sexual harassment.
“On any planet what happened in this case is acceptable,” he said. He also said the agents’ actions to undermine the case were ‘unacceptable’.
Meanwhile, Maroney recounted how in 2015 he spent 3 hours on the phone telling the FBI details of his story, which his own mother had never even heard of, including the story of sexual harassment he experienced during the Olympic games in London by Nassar. He described Nassar as ‘a pedophile rather than he is a doctor’.
Nassar himself is a former employee of Michigan State University. He has been found guilty in three separate cases, with one serving a prison sentence of up to 175 years.
But in July this year, the Justice Department’s inspector general revealed what the FBI was actually doing with the information provided by Maroney. The FBI is considered to have failed to document it for 1.5 years and misrepresented what Maroney told them about the incident.
“Not only did the FBI not report my harassment, but when they finally documented my report 17 months later, they made completely false claims about what I said,” Maroney said.
Wednesday’s parliamentary session came after the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, issued a report condemning the FBI for undermining its investigation. Horowitz, in his report, said there was a series of wrongdoings that allowed the abuse to continue for months.
Several gymnasts said they were furious that the FBI failed to interview them about the abuse after they reported it. After the FBI contacted, they said the agency was trying to downplay the severity of the abuse.
“I remember sitting down with an FBI agent and he was trying to convince me it wasn’t that bad,” said another athlete, Raisman.
“It took me years of therapy to realize that my abuse was bad, that it was important.”
Watch the video ‘Mental Health Focus, Simone Biles Withdraws from the 2020 Olympics’:
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