DOJ watchdog finds FBI botched investigation into Larry Nassar

Larry Nassar.
(Image credit: Rena Laverty/AFP/Getty Images)

A report released Wednesday by the Justice Department's inspector general found that the FBI made "numerous and fundamental" errors while investigating the "extraordinarily serious" allegations of sexual abuse made against Larry Nassar, the former national team doctor for USA Gymnastics.

In 2015, after USA Gymnastics conducted its own internal investigation into accusations of abuse, the organization's then-president, Stephen Penny, went to the FBI field office in Indianapolis to report the allegations. The report found that the Indianapolis agents failed to respond to the accusations with "the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required," and went months before launching an investigation.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.