In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked four Olympic gymnasts what the Senate could do to bring about justice after the FBI mishandled their case.
The committee heard testimony from the gymnasts on the FBI’s bungling of sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics doctor.
In 2018, Nassar was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of sexual assault. In total, he was accused of sexual abuse by more than 330 women and girls at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.
In July, a report on the FBI’s investigation into Nassar’s behavior revealed the agency had failed to conduct a timely and satisfactory investigation.
The FBI “failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies,” the report said.
At least 40 girls and women said they were molested by Nassar after the FBI had been alerted to the abuse, but by some estimates this number is even higher.
Gymnasts Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols appeared before the committee on Wednesday to speak about the FBI’s lackluster investigation into Nassar. They revealed FBI agents had falsified statements attributed to them, failed to follow up on abuse allegations and attempted to convince them that their abuse “wasn’t that bad.”
Leahy praised the women for their testimony.
“The perseverance you’re showing the world today is incredibly admirable,” he said. “I’ve been on this committee for a long time and I cannot think of anything so moving.”
Leahy went on to ask Raisman, Biles, Maroney and Nichols what would feel like justice to them.
“What does genuine accountability look like? When do you feel justice will be done for the injustices you suffered?” he asked.
Raisman expressed frustration, saying she has laid out time and time again what she hopes will happen. “Hopefully today will be [the day] that … it actually happens,” she said.
She said she considers accountability to be “a complete and full independent investigation” of the FBI, USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Biles said the women “also want to see [FBI agents] at least be federally prosecuted to the fullest extent because they need to be held accountable.”
“As a former prosecutor I agree with that,” Leahy responded.
Raisman told Leahy that she and her teammates had been made to feel like “adversaries to USA Gymnastics” for reporting their abuse.
“All we are asking for is that when a child goes into gymnastics or goes to school or does anything that they can be spared abuse,” she said. “We’ve been made to feel that we don’t matter.”
Raisman then recounted an experience she had with an FBI agent when first reporting Nassar’s abuse.
“I remember sitting there with the FBI agent and him trying to convince me that it wasn’t that bad, and it’s taken me years of therapy to realize that my abuse was bad,” she said.
