WASHINGTON — Two former F.B.I. brokers accused of bungling the bureau’s investigation of Lawrence G. Nassar, the previous physician for U.S.A. Gymnastics who was convicted on state intercourse abuse and federal baby pornography expenses, is not going to be prosecuted, the Justice Division mentioned on Thursday.
The choice ends a evaluation the division initiated in October, months after its inspector common issued a scathing report that sharply criticized the F.B.I.’s dealing with of the case, which was delivered to the bureau’s Indianapolis workplace in July 2015.
The F.B.I.’s failure to behave on the knowledge it acquired allowed Mr. Nassar to assault extra ladies. Lots of of feminine sufferers, together with many members of the U.S. ladies’s Olympic gymnastics groups, say he abused them below the guise of medical therapy.
The previous brokers, W. Jay Abbott, who was in control of the bureau’s Indianapolis subject workplace, and Michael Langeman, who labored in that workplace, have been accused by the Justice Division’s watchdog of constructing false statements when it reviewed the matter.
“This doesn’t in any means replicate a view that the investigation of Nassar was dealt with because it ought to have been, nor in any means replicate approval or disregard of the conduct of the previous brokers,” the division mentioned in a statement, including that the choice mirrored the steerage of skilled prosecutors.
Even because the Justice Division acknowledged that the brokers appeared to have made false statements, it mentioned that prosecutors didn’t have sufficient proof to carry felony expenses.
Mr. Nassar’s victims and their representatives excoriated the choice.
“The continued failure by the Division of Justice to criminally cost the F.B.I. brokers, U.S.A. Gymnastics and america Olympic and Paralympic Committee officers who conspired to cowl up the most important intercourse abuse scandal within the historical past of sport is meaningless,” mentioned John C. Manly, a lawyer who represented among the survivors.
Final summer time, the Justice Division’s inspector common, Michael E. Horowitz, accused Mr. Abbott of giving false statements to his investigators quite a few instances when requested in regards to the Nassar case, “to attenuate errors made by the Indianapolis subject workplace in reference to the dealing with of the Nassar allegations.”
He additionally mentioned that Mr. Abbott violated F.B.I. coverage by discussing potential job alternatives with U.S.A. Gymnastics on the identical time that he spoke to the group in regards to the allegations in opposition to Mr. Nassar.
Mr. Abbott retired from the F.B.I. in 2018, three years earlier than the inspector common accomplished his report. Mr. Langeman was fired quickly after the report was launched. However the Justice Division selected to not prosecute both man.
Mr. Nassar’s victims, their households and members of Congress have been outraged by the inspector common’s findings and the Justice Division’s resolution to not discover whether or not the F.B.I. brokers needs to be criminally charged on suspicion of mendacity to investigators.
Three months later, the deputy legal professional common, Lisa O. Monaco, informed Congress that new info had come to mild, prompting her to have the top of the division’s felony division evaluation the matter.
“I need the survivors to know how exceptionally critically we take this concern and imagine that this deserves a radical and full evaluation,” Ms. Monaco mentioned final October.
The victims “have been promised motion” by Ms. Monaco, Mr. Manly mentioned. “There was no motion for greater than six months and now this promise to survivors has been damaged.”
The F.B.I. met in 2015 with a number of gymnasts who accused Mr. Nassar of abuse, together with McKayla Maroney, an Olympic gold medalist who detailed these allegations in a three-hour interview. She testified earlier than Congress that the F.B.I. responded to her account by saying, “Is that every one?”
“Not solely did the F.B.I. not report my abuse, however once they ultimately documented my report 17 months later, they made fully false claims about what I mentioned,” Ms. Maroney mentioned. “They selected to lie about what I mentioned and defend a serial baby molester.”
Mr. Nassar continued to sexually assault scores of ladies after Ms. Maroney spoke with the F.B.I. and was charged by the State of Michigan in 2017. He’s serving what quantities to life in jail.
