'urgency and gravity'
DOJ reviewing decision not to charge FBI agents in Larry Nassar investigation
The Justice Department is now reviewing the decision not to bring charges against FBI agents following the botched investigation into convicted Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing Tuesday that the DOJ is reviewing this decision and that "new information has come to light." She added that the review is being conducted with a "sense of urgency and gravity," The Washington Post reports.
In July, the Justice Department's inspector general found that the FBI made "numerous and fundamental" errors during the investigation into Nassar's sexual abuse while he served as USA Gymnastics' national team doctor. Agents didn't respond to the allegations against Nassar with "the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required," the inspector general found. The report also showed that an FBI agent and his boss made false statements to investigators, according to the Post. Nassar is serving a decades-long prison sentence after being convicted on child pornography and sexual abuse charges.
News that the DOJ would review the decision not to charge FBI agents in the case comes after gymnasts including Simone Biles, who said she was sexually abused by Nassar, delivered emotional testimony before the Senate last month blasting the way the investigation was handled.
"I don't want another young gymnast, Olympic athlete, or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured," Biles said. "To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse."
While testifying before the Senate on Tuesday, Monaco said she wanted to communicate to the Senate and to survivors of Nassar's abuse "how exceptionally seriously we take this issue and believe this reserves a thorough and full review."