Senator asks FBI to investigate USOC and USA gymnastics

Pulse 04:28 - 12 December 2018

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The report, commissioned by the USOC, was a scathing indictment of a broken system that allowed Nassar to molest girls and women for decades.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. and one of the leaders in Congress’ examination of the sexual abuse problem in Olympic sports, on Tuesday formally asked the FBI to investigate the United States Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics based on what he called “their role in this massive cover-up” involving the longtime gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar.

“As you know, accomplice liability is a federal crime,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Christopher Wray, the FBI director, on Tuesday, before urging the Justice Department to investigate “whether the organization is culpable for the harm caused by Nassar.”

Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate subcommittee that holds jurisdiction over the USOC, pushed for the investigation a day after the law firm Ropes & Gray released a 233-page report examining some of the people and entities that enabled Nassar to thrive for decades in the world of sports.

The report, commissioned by the USOC, was a scathing indictment of a broken system that allowed Nassar to molest girls and women for decades. Investigators found that Scott Blackmun, the USOC’s chief executive who resigned in February, did nothing to investigate or stop Nassar in the year or so after he learned of accusations of Nassar’s abuse.

The Justice Department’s inspector general’s office is already investigating the way the FBI handled the matter, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, because the case languished for more than a year at the bureau before it took action.

But now Blumenthal, as well as dozens of survivors of Nassar’s abuse, said it was time for the FBI to dig deeper and for individuals who enabled Nassar to be held accountable.

“One of the issues here is why the FBI has failed to do more,” the senator said in a telephone interview. “We have made some inquiries about it but have yet to receive a full answer from the FBI.”

Many of Nassar’s victims have asked for a federal criminal investigation into who was complicit in Nassar’s abuse. Jordyn Wieber, an Olympic champion gymnast who was abused by Nassar, said at a news conference in Beverly Hills, California, that the goal continued to be finding the truth in the Nassar case — and revealing it all, and quickly. The girls and women need to move on, she said.

“It’s hard enough to tell our story again and again and again,” Wieber said Tuesday while sitting with her lawyer, John Manly, and several other Nassar survivors. “It’s even harder to continually hear news of more people who knew about this and didn’t do anything.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.