Former U.S. Gymnast Calls For Criminal Charges Over Horrific Failures of FBI’s Larry Nassar Investigation

Former Team USA gymnast Jessica Howard gave a powerful response to the FBI’s failures in their investigation of the team’s former doctor, convicted sex offender Larry Nassar.

Back in 2018, Nassar was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing hundreds of young women athletes under the pretense of providing medical treatment. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice inspector general released a report outlining a series of missteps connected to the FBI’s investigation into Nassar. These include failures in following protocol, false statements from a now-retired FBI agent, and other indications that investigators dragged their feet in looking into the allegations against Nassar.

These failures reportedly allowed Nassar to keep seeing patients for more than a year, during which “70 or more” of his victims were molested, including one said to have been 8 years old.

Howard — who was among those abused by Nassar — joined CBS This Morning on Thursday, and she was asked for her response to the watchdog report. She began by denouncing the consequences of the FBI’s botched effort, even as she lamented that “I’ve come to expect that nothing will be done.”

“It’s not people messing up, it’s people turning away,” she said. “It’s people not paying attention, it’s people deciding not to act, and that, to me, is the most heinous, heinous way you can treat a child.”

After saying its “not good enough” for the FBI to promise it’ll do better in the future, Howard was asked if she wants criminal charges brought against the agents involved in the probe.

“Absolutely,” she answered. “I want Congress to get involved. I want the DOJ to get involved. I want a special prosecutor. I want agents who were not — maybe not even mentioned in report — but you cannot tell me that in USA Gymnastics, in the U.S. Olympic Committee, and in the FBI that it was only these one or two bad players. That’s what they’ve said about Larry — absolutely not true. He’s the only one in prison.”

Watch above, via CBS.