FBI negotiating settlement with Larry Nassar victims who filed $1 billion lawsuit: source
The group of 90 women sued the FBI for failing to properly investigate complaints against Nassar
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The FBI is in settlement negotiations with the victims of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, a source familiar with the discussion told Fox News.
A group of 90 women, including Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, sued the FBI in June for failing to properly investigate complaints against Nassar. The disgraced doctor is serving a 60-year sentence in federal prison on child pornography charges and has also been sentenced to 175 years in Michigan state prison for seven counts of sexually abusing gymnasts.
Fox has reached out to the FBI and to attorneys for the plaintiffs regarding the potential settlement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"FBI officials, who possessed this knowledge and were in a position to end Nassar’s predation, were grossly derelict in their duties resulting in Nassar sexually assaulting approximately 100 young women and children between July 28, 2015, and September 12, 2016, and conspired with the highest-ranking officials within the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and USA Gymnastics, Inc. to conceal this known sexual abuse from foreseeable victims," a claim from five of the former gymnasts said.
Olympic Gymnasts Testify On FBI Failures To Investigate Abuse. (JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images | Saul Loeb/AFP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
MCKAYLA MARONEY: I WAS FORCED TO COMPETE ON BROKEN FOOT THANKS TO LARRY NASSAR
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The disgraced doctor is serving a 60-year sentence in federal prison on child pornography charges and has also been sentenced to 175 years in Michigan state prison for seven counts of sexually abusing gymnasts.
It is uncommon for the FBI, which is part of the Department of Justice, to enter into settlement negotiations so quickly after a lawsuit is filed, and it likely indicates the organization is admitting guilt in the incident.
FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly apologized for the bureau's failures relating to the Nassar probe in a September 2021 Senate hearing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that’s inexcusable," Wray said at the time.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland echoed Wray's sentiment during an April Congressional hearing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's almost unspeakable. It is unspeakable," Garland told Senators. "What happened to those gymnasts and also the unspeakable way in which the investigation failed to proceed. We have created institutional changes in that regard to make sure it doesn't happen again."