CHARLOTTE, MI – FEBRUARY 05: Larry Nassar stands as he is sentenced by Judge Janice Cunningham for three counts of criminal sexual assault in Eaton County Circuit Court on February 5, 2018 in Charlotte, Michigan. Nassar has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 150 girls and young women while he was a physician for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. Cunningham sentenced Nassar to 40 to 125 years in prison. He is currently serving a 60-year sentence in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Last month a judge in Ingham County, Michigan sentenced Nassar to an 40 to 175 years in prison after he plead guilty to sexually assaulting seven girls. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
6:35 PM – Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The Justice Department has reportedly had discussions with the victims of former disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar and the final payout for victims is likely to be approximately $100 million, although the settlement has not been finalized.
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The agreement and the anticipated settlement sum were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The Justice Department concluded that when the young athletes voiced concerns about Nassar, the FBI did not respond appropriately. The top Justice Department watchdog said in a report published in July 2021 that the FBI’s Indianapolis field office committed “fundamental errors” and neglected to alert other FBI offices, state agencies, or local law enforcement.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Justice Department stated that it “can’t confirm the WSJ’s reporting at this time.”
In response to the FBI’s inability to stop Nassar, over 100 women filed a collective lawsuit against the federal government, seeking more than $1 billion.
In 2018, young women and underage girls who claimed Nassar had sexually assaulted them received $500 million from his employer, Michigan State University. In 2021, victims also received a $380 million settlement from USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
In 2017, Nassar entered a guilty plea, admitting to having abused ten of the over 265 patients who had reported molestation. Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Sabrina Vega, Ashton Locklear, Kyla Ross, Simone Biles, and Alyssa Baumann were among the abuse victims from the USA Gymnastics national team.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing child sex abuse images and will be serving up to 175 years in prison.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report in 2021 stated that a special agent in charge of the Indianapolis field office was accused of instructing the FBI to release a false statement to the media in early 2017 saying his office had “expeditiously responded” to the allegations about Nassar.
From July 2015, when USA Gymnastics first brought up the allegations, until September 2016, when police searched Nassar’s home, reporters had questioned why the FBI had not taken action.
Only one of the three victims who had come forward at the time and agreed to speak with investigators had reportedly been interviewed by the FBI’s office, according to the report. Nassar persisted in abusing his patients up until his arrest by local authorities in November 2016.
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