Report - Larry Nassar victims to get $100M from Justice Dept. - ESPN

The United States Justice Department has agreed to pay around 100 victims of disgraced former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar approximately $100 million for the FBI's failures to properly investigate reports of Nassar's sexual assaults against America's top gymnasts and others, according to a report Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal.

If the agreement becomes final, it would push the total amount of settlements in the sprawling legal cases against Nassar to nearly $1 billion. Two attorneys, who between them represent more than 300 of Nassar's victims, would not confirm details of the proposed settlement when reached Wednesday by ESPN.

The FBI's failures in the Nassar case are well documented. At a 2021 Senate hearing FBI Director Christopher Wray apologized to survivors of Nassar's abuse, saying it was «inexcusable» that agents «had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.»

In the summer of 2015, officials from USA Gymnastics, after conducting a five-week internal investigation, first told agents within the FBI's Indianapolis field office that three Team USA gymnasts had said they were sexually assaulted by Nassar during treatment sessions.

A report by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General found that in the summer of 2015 «despite the extraordinarily serious nature of the allegations and the possibility that Nassar's conduct could be continuing, senior officials in the FBI Indianapolis Field Office failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency.»

That July 2021 report also found that field agents «did not undertake any investigative activity» for five weeks and then neglected to properly transfer the matter to the field office in Lansing, Michigan,