By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department has decided it won’t pursue charges against two FBI agents for mishandling the sex-abuse investigation into Larry Nassar, the disgraced USA Gymnastics team doctor.
In a statement Thursday, the DOJ said it “is adhering to its prior decision not to bring federal criminal charges” after a “careful re-review” of the allegations against the agents.
“This does not in any way reflect a view that the investigation of Nassar was handled as it should have been, nor in any way reflect approval or disregard of the conduct of the former agents,” the Justice Department said. “While the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General has outlined serious concerns about the former agents’ conduct during the Nassar investigation, and also described how evidence shows that during interviews in the years after the events in question both former agents appear to have provided inaccurate or incomplete information to investigators, the Principles of Federal Prosecution require more to bring a federal criminal case.”
The review comes about 10 months after the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded in a searing 119-page report that the FBI mishandled the investigation.
Horowitz also found that W. Jay Abbot, special agent in charge of the Indianapolis Field Office, lied to investigators about the botched investigation and his personal conflicts in the case.
Abbott retired in January 2018, and Agent Michael Langeman was fired for his role in the investigation.
According to the report, Nassar sexually abused at least 70 young athletes between 2015 and August 2016. Nassar is effectively serving a life sentence in prison.
In September, FBI Director Christopher Wray apologized for the bureau’s “totally unacceptable” fails in the Nassar case.
“I’m sorry that so many people let you down again and again,” Wray said to the victims while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I am especially sorry that there were people at the F.B.I. who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed, and that is inexcusable. It never should have happened, and we are doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.”
