SUMMARY: A group of young women who had a piece of their childhood stripped away by a serial sex predator bravely spoke out at the Capitol. They expected the FBI to hear their pleas. Multiple dismissive agents, failed to take appropriate actions, letting them down. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard their stories on Wednesday, September 15.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill. has placed the Federal Bureau of Investigations on the Congressional record for having a soiled reputation. In
In his opening statement, suring a hearing about the bureau's mishandling of the Larry Nassar investigation, Durbin said the case left "a stain on the bureau."
Simone Biles and three other gymnasts -- all victims of sexual assault by jailed sports doctor Larry Nassar testified about the FBIs mishandling of the investigation before the Senate Judiciary committee on Wednesday. Teary, Biles explained exactly who she wants to he held accountable -- Nassar, USA Gymnastics and the entire system that failed them.
"In the 15-month period that FBI officials shirked their responsibility, Nassar abused at least 70 young athletes," Durbin said. "For many of them, this was a continuation, but for others they were abused for the first time while the FBI sat on the case."
Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman, joned BIles in addressing their experiences with the serial pedophine. They did not spare the graphic details and were transparent about painful moments of sexual abuse that had never been spoken in the Congress like this. Their stories cracked open a world where children were left without parental supervision to presumably trustworthy adults in the USA Gymnastics organization who brushed off claims of their innocence being taken away.
As the group of four read from cell phones recallling how Nassar had taken advantage of them they rel-lived the trauma., revealing in real time the lasting affects of childhood sexual molestation. McKayla Maroneyi was so visibly shaken and drained she said she could not any anymore questions. She testified that she was "shocked" by an FBI agant's silence and disregard for her trauma and recalled theat they lied about what she said. Similarly, Aly Raisman, said the FBI made her feel like her confession about the abuse to them didn't count.
They were all unified in the message that they do not want waht happend to them to happent to others. Biles asked, weighed down by years of the FBI's botched investigation being ignored, "How musch is a little girl worth?" Biles and other sexual abuse survivors have spread awareness about the lack of support thoward victiims over the years. Over 70 girils emerged admitting that they had also been molested by Nassar. Maggie was the first the expose that Nassar had molested her in 2015 and a stram of other girls flowed in.
One lawmaker after the other chimed in condeming the violations. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recognized that the girls "suffered needlessly because multiple agents in multiple offices at the FBI neglected to share the Nassar allegations with their law enforcement counterparts at state and local agencies."
FBI director Chris Wray who joined the bureau in 2017 was grilled on what happened within the agency that could have caused the system to fail. He asid he didn't know but vowed to change it. (I'm deeply and profoundly sorry," he said noting that solutions were already in the works.
Larry Nassar was previously sentenced to 175 years in prison.
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