Bobby Knight was investigated by the FBI for allegedly touching NGA employees inappropriately

Former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight, 76, was investigated by the FBI over complaints that he inappropriately touched female employees at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), an intelligence arm of the Defense Department, when he was invited to give a speech at the headquarters in July 2015, The Washington Post reports. Four women claimed or were witnessed being touched by Knight, including one woman who allegedly had Knight put "his hands on the sides of her chest and [lift] her off the ground" and another who claims Knight "put his arm around her shoulders and groped her on the buttocks," the Post writes.

Knight was a controversial choice of a speaker from the start; he has formerly been accused of choking an Indiana player and punching a policeman in Puerto Rico, and he claimed in 1988 that "if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it." Knight is longtime friends with the father of NGA director Robert Cardillo, who invited Knight to speak at the agency's distinguished speaker series. After the allegations emerged, Cardillo said he was "shocked" and "stunned" and he made a point to contact the women who had made the accusations and offer his support.

One woman took Cardillo up on his offer to meet but said in a statement later that over the course of their conversation, "I felt that [Cardillo] was giving me an order to drop this issue and go back to work like a good little girl. I felt at that moment he had chosen his friendship with Bobby Knight over my psychological welfare, and called me to his office to let me know that."

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The case was eventually transferred from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command to the FBI, which interviewed Knight at his home in Montana in July 2016. Present for the interviews was Richard Cardillo, Knight's friend and Robert Cardillo's father, who said the allegations were "unfounded" and "completely false." The FBI closed the case shortly afterwards, having "decided the evidence against [Knight] was not likely to result in a successful prosecution," The Washington Post reports. Read the full story here.