Another FBI failure: Larry Nassar debacle is latest in string of high-profile breakdowns
It was bad enough that the FBI allowed sexual assault allegations against disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar to languish for nearly a year.
During that time, authorities concluded in a devastating internal Justice Department report, the predator physician found dozens of new victims in what stands as one of the most horrific scandals in American sports.
Yet Wednesday’s searing account of the FBI’s failures in the Nassar case adds to a growing list of damning critiques of the bureau’s involvement in some of the most consequential investigations in recent years.
In an episode that continues to shadow the country's vaunted law enforcement agency, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz – who also wrote the scathing Nassar report – concluded in 2019 that the FBI's surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was riddled with errors as authorities investigated the former president's suspected ties with Russia.
FBI probe of Larry Nassar: An 8-point breakdown of the 119-page watchdog report
Another gut punch landed a year earlier when the FBI acknowledged that it failed to forward a warning the about Parkland, Florida, high school shooter from a tip line shortly before the massacre that left 17 dead. At the time, the informant had related the gunman's “desire to kill people.”
More: FBI failed to pursue tip on Florida school shooting suspect
A separate deadly shooting, this time at an iconic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, was followed by an emotional concession from then-FBI Director James Comey that a background check system failure had allowed the shooter to purchase a handgun used to kill nine people at a worship service there.
As rebukes of the nation's premier law enforcement agency land with alarming frequency, the assessment of the bureau's involvement in the Nassar case contain perhaps some of the most disturbing assertions yet: that senior agents failed to act with urgency in 2015 when first confronted with serious allegations of sexual abuse of young athletes and then lied about their inaction when questioned by Justice Department investigators.
More than that, as young athletes continued to be victimized, the report found that the then-chief of the FBI's Indianapolis Division, Jay Abbott, and Stephen Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, discussed the prospect of a job for the FBI official at the U.S. Olympic Committee. Abbott has since retired, and Penny, who resigned his post in 2017, has been charged with evidence tampering.
"I think it is fair to say that I have lost faith in the systems that should be protecting us, including the FBI," Grace French, founder of the advocacy group Army of Survivors and a survivor of Nassar's abuse, said in an interview Thursday. "This has left me with a serious lack of trust in some of our most important institutions."
'This is why survivors don't report': Gymnasts, community react to FBI failure in Larry Nassar investigation
Has the FBI 'lost its way' on crime?
Chris Swecker, a former chief of the FBI's Criminal Division, characterized the bureau's collective failure in the Nassar case as "one of the most egregious I've ever seen."
"It raises the question of whether the FBI has lost its way in criminal cases," Swecker said, suggesting that the post-9/11 emphasis on thwarting international terrorism may have weakened the bureau's approach to more traditional criminal investigations.
"I'm seeing the bureau getting pummeled in so many different places, from the handling of this Nassar case to mass shootings, it makes you wonder," the former assistant director said. "This is the type of case where the FBI has a duty to act. But I'm reading this (inspector general report), and it makes me sad. There were not only questions about how the investigation was handled but also the ethical conduct of the agents involved."
Among the most alarming findings in the inspector general's report involved Abbott, the former Indianapolis FBI chief.
Abbott: Amid delayed Nassar probe, FBI agent sought Olympics job, inspector general says
According to the report, Abbott was in contact with Penny, then the USA Gymnastics president, about a job with the U.S. Olympic Committee "while the two continued to discuss the allegations against Nassar and while Abbott took an active role in conversations about the FBI’s public statements regarding USA Gymnastics’ handling of those allegations."
"Abbott should have known – and we found that he in fact did know – that this conduct would raise questions regarding his impartiality," the report found. "Further, Abbott applied for the position with the U.S. Olympic Committee, and then falsely denied that he had done so when questioned by the (inspector general) on two separate occasions."
Jeffrey Danik, a former FBI supervisory special agent, said the high-profile missteps not only undermine the credibility of the FBI but they also cripple agents' ability to conduct investigations.
"Who pays the price right now? The street agents. The hardworking street agents are paying the price for these executives bungling and bungling ... all of these cases, one after another," Danik said. "So when I go out on the street, flash my credentials, I get pushback now. I'm hearing this from many, many agents. It hurts."
Mistakes in Parkland, Charleston shootings
While the inspector general's report has sparked a wave of recriminations, past missteps involving the bureau continue to reverberate.
In Florida, the parents of victims in the 2018 Parkland school shooting are pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the FBI.
Included in the court documents is a stark recounting of how Fred and Jennifer Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the attack, learned of the FBI's failure to act on information about the shooter.
Two days after the February shooting, according to court records, the parents were selecting a casket for their daughter when Fred Guttenberg was alerted to a missed call from the FBI.
A text message "advised Fred that the FBI had important information to share with him."
When Guttenberg reached the bureau, an agent related that "the FBI was at fault for failing to prevent the tragedy that took his daughter’s life."
"The FBI agent said that the ... tragic mistakes were about to become public, and he wanted to make sure Fred heard it from the FBI first," according to court documents. "The FBI representative told Fred that before the shooting the FBI had received information about the killer that should have been acted upon and was not."
In a subsequent public statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency had reached out to the victims and their families while expressing regret for "the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy."
Citing the pending legal action, Fred Guttenberg declined to comment Thursday.
Three years earlier, Wray's predecessor, Comey, summoned reporters to bureau headquarters where he acknowledged that the shooter in the 2015 attack at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, should have been prohibited from purchasing the handgun used in the massacre.
At the time, Comey said an arrest record detailing the shooter's prior drug arrest by local South Carolina police was not included in materials reviewed by the FBI's National Instant Check System, which performs criminal background investigations on gun purchasers.
"I am here today to talk to you about a mistake, in a matter of heartbreaking importance to all of us,'' Comey said then. "Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of so many innocent people ... should not have been allowed to purchase the gun he allegedly used that evening.''
Roof is appealing a federal death sentence.
As in the Parkland shooting, some victims' family members in the church shooting have pursued legal action, accusing the federal government of negligence.
Malcolm Graham, whose sister Cynthia Graham was one of the nine victims, said Thursday that he is not part of any lawsuit.
A former North Carolina state senator, Graham said he appreciated the FBI's support during the investigation and prosecution.
"I prefer to focus on how she lived, not how she died," Graham said.
'Inexcusable' handling of Nassar case
The FBI's response to the searing Nassar findings, meanwhile, amounted to complete condemnation.
The bureau variously described the behavior of two of its agents and the FBI's handling of the case as "completely unacceptable, inexcusable and appalling."
An unnamed supervisory special agent involved in the case has been reassigned pending the completion of an internal FBI investigation, and Abbott's actions “reflect a violation of the FBI's longstanding code of conduct and the ethical obligations of FBI employees, especially senior officials."
“The extent of his behavior as he sought employment (with the Olympic committee) is particularly troubling, as is the conclusion that he made false statements to the OIG,” the FBI said. “Simply put, the behavior described in the report is not representative of the FBI or of our tens of thousands of retirees and current employees.”
Wray has launched a review that will clarify requirements to document and retain complaints of sexual abuse and sexual assault, a central failure in the Nassar case. FBI policy also will be amended to require 30-day status checks on complaints involving sexual abuse and assault to determine whether further investigation is warranted. Wray also has ordered additional training in dealing with such victims, especially children.
“We do not lose sight of the victims that suffered abuse and mistreatment because of potential missed opportunities to disrupt the further criminal behavior of the now-convicted Nassar in 2015 and 2016,” the FBI said.
'Failure to protect these children'
The FBI's extraordinary acknowledgement, however, has not calmed the outrage.
Lawmakers Thursday have called for Wray to appear at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to address the FBI's handling of the case.
“The FBI’s failure in this case led to more athletes being victimized," Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said. "This committee has the responsibility of oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation – and will hold a hearing to examine this injustice and to prevent future, similar tragedies."
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, panel's ranking Republican, said inspector general's report "confirms my fears that the FBI dropped the ball, allowing abuses to continue for months."
"The FBI owes the American people an accounting for its failure to protect these children, and explanation for how it plans to do better in the future,” Grassley said.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the law enforcement response represented "catastrophic failures at multiple levels ... including federal agents who should’ve taken action and willfully neglected to do so."
"This dereliction of duty is reprehensible, and those responsible must be held accountable.”