The FBI settles for $138 million dollars with Nassar victims over failure to investigate

In case you missed it, the Department of Justice recently settled with some of the gymnasts who were victims of Larry Nassar for $138.7 million. The settlement was reached with 139 victims over the FBI’s botched probe. By botched, I mean the FBI didn’t do anything for over a year when sexual assault was reported by members of the USA Gymnastics Team. The FBI did nothing when Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman and Simone Biles reported that they had been sexually assaulted by then team “doctor” Larry Nassar.

During the time that the FBI did nothing — July 2015 to August 2016 — 70 additional victims were assaulted. The FBI did absolutely nothing until they were forced to do something because of the explosive story published by the Indy Star newspaper in August 2016 about USAG’s failures to properly investigate credible complaints of sexual abuse.

The story wasn’t even about Larry Nassar. But it prompted Rachael Denhollander to come forward to the newspaper to tell her story and then file a criminal report with the Michigan State University (MSU) police. (Nassar was employed by MSU and “volunteered” his time to USAG to “treat” Team USA.)

The Indy Star story featuring Denhollander opened the floodgates. Within weeks more than 50 credible complaints had come in to the Indy Star.

I don’t say this often anymore, but thank goodness for journalists. Without Mark Alesia, Tim Evans and Marisa Kwiatkowski, Nassar would not have been arrested.

And without Detective Andrea Munford and the former assistant attorney general in Michigan — Angela Povilaitis, Nassar would not be in prison for life.

This $138.7 million dollar FBI settlement is on top of the MSU settlement for $500 million in 2018 and the USA Gymnastics (USAG)/U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) settlement for $380 million in 2021.

All of these organizations failed young women and girls. There were official reports of sexual abuse by Nassar all the way back to 1998. All of the reports were brushed off . . . by MSU, by the MSU police, by USAG and more. Nassar was protected and young women and girls were ignored. Why?

Well, it was before the me too movement, which, despite its excesses, did some good in encouraging women and girls to stand up and say NO. I will not stay quiet. This happened to me. I will not protect the reputation of a man who sexually assaulted me.

Women demanded to be heard. And they were.

Pre-me-too there wasn’t much listening happening when women and girls filed claims of sexual abuse. And when it came down to it, these organizations protected their reputations and ignored the young women and girls who make the sport what it is.

Of course, money was the driver of desperately wanting to keep reputations in tact. With USAG/USOPC in particular, news of harboring pedophiles would impact their ability to promote their image of sparkly happy gymnasts bouncing around and waving to the crowd. This image is what attracted sponsors. So USAG buried the story and just pretended it wasn’t happening at all. And the cover-up became as bad as the crime.

Once the story was permanently and undeniably in the ether, loss of sponsorships is exactly what happened.

As for the FBI, Steve Penny — the head of USAG at the time — dangled a security job with the USOPC in front of Jay Abbott, the local Indianapolis FBI lead. According to the Washington Post, in July 2021:

“The inspector general found that while the FBI was dealing with the Nassar allegations in late 2015, the head of the FBI’s Indianapolis office, Jay Abbott, talked to Stephen Penny, then-president of USA Gymnastics, about getting Abbott a job with the Olympic Committee.”

So yes money — not just laziness and lack of care for girls and women — was a factor with the FBI’s failure as well. But it all added up and girls and women were forsaken and what resulted is the worst sexual abuse scandal in American sports history. And a mighty payout of $1 billion, all told.

I would be remiss if I didn’t note that my book Chalked Up came out in 2008. I wrote at length about the abusive culture in the sport. Imagine if USAG had taken it seriously instead of smearing me? Imagine how many young women might have been saved from abuse? But no. They chose to vilify me as a grifter, liar and angry bitter ex-gymnast pissed off I didn’t make the 1988 Olympic Team.

Steve Penny went so far as to leave threatening voicemails at my workplace to try to get me to stop speaking out about the pervasive culture of abuse. He was later arrested for allegedly tampering with evidence in the Nassar case, so not surprising really that he would try to intimidate me into being quiet. (I ignored him, for the record.)

Regarding Penny’s arrest, according to ESPN he directed staff to remove any evidence from the Karolyi training facility — the “ranch” — and bring it to USAG headquarters.

“Former USAG national team travel manager Amy White told attorneys investigating the case on behalf of the United States Olympic Committee that Penny had ordered her to refuse investigators access to the ranch when they first showed up on November 8, 2016, unannounced and without a search warrant.

White told investigators Penny then instructed her that same day to go to a local department store to purchase a suitcase, large enough to take medical forms, rooming lists, flash drives and anything else with Nassar's name on it to the USA Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis.”

Of note, the charges against Penny were dismissed in 2022 due to lack of documentation. (I guess that happens when you destroy evidence?)

Imagine if Penny had called me instead to say: I take claims of abuse seriously. Tell me more about the Strausses (my coaches) and Don Peters (the coach for Team USA in the 1980s). Both the Strausses and Peters were still coaching at the time Penny chose to hound me and harass me rather than ask a few simple questions.

Now, Peters is banned from the sport and the Strausses’ gym is under forever investigation by SafeSport. As reported by The Morning Call, the Allentown, Pennsylvania (where the Strausses gym, Parkettes, is located) newspaper in April 2023:

“He [John Holman] is among five Parkettes coaches, including owners Bill and Donna Strauss, who remain under investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport after allegations that gymnasts were shamed over their weight, pressured to keep training when doctors ordered them to rest and heal, and subjected to lewd and sexually inappropriate remarks.”

I wrote about all of this and was called every name in the book by my own teammates. And here we are. Imagine, just imagine, if anyone had taken what I said seriously 16 years ago? How many athletes would have been spared?

All of this said, is it any surprise that the USOPC, the individual sport governing bodies and the athletes feeling the pressure from these organizations are failing to stand up for women’s sports and spaces? Is it any wonder they are failing to do the right thing, again?

It’s a different belief system at play, but it is serving the same function of protecting males and silencing women.

Back then, it was the pervasive belief that these male coaches’ reputations needed to be protected at all cost and it was only weak female athletes with nefarious intentions who would dare criticize them.

Now, we are once again protecting males but it is driven by politics and activism. The ideas being furthered are “inclusion” and “progressivism” and “kindness” but make no mistake, girls and women are once again being told to shut up and sit down to protect the wants and desires of males — they just happened to be trans identified males this time.

I, for one, will not oblige.