This morning, new justice for victims of disgraced sports doctor
Larry Nasser.
The Department of Justice issuing a
$138.7 million payout and apologizing for the FB is failure
to act sooner on warnings about the convicted sex abuser,
which prompted an emotional congressional hearing.
Three years ago. They allowed a child molester to go
free for more than a year,
and this inaction directly allowed
Nassar's abuse to continue. Their testimony led to an extraordinary
apology from FBI Director Christopher Wray,
who did not oversee the Bureau when the investigation began.
I'm especially sorry that there were people at the FBI
who had their own chance to stop this monster back
in
2015 and failed. Gold medalist Aly Raisman told Savannah back
in 2018 she wasn't contacted by authorities about her sexual
abuse until more than a year after her initial complaint.
I said, why did you wait so long?
And they said, oh, we wanted to wait until the
Olympics were over.
Why?
I don't know. Gymnast Maggie Nichols mother Gina says she
also waited more than a year for a call from
the FB.
I I said, I reported this over a year ago
and you're the first person from any form of law
enforcement that has called me
and I said, so when did you get this assignment?
He told me yesterday. In a scathing
2021 report, the Justice Department Inspector General details multiple failures
and policy violations by the Indianapolis field office which initially
handled the Nasser allegations,
including that Nasser continued to see patients in his clinic
at Michigan State University for almost 14 months after the
FBI was first alerted.
By one estimate, he abused at least 70 or more
gymnasts during that time.
Olympic star Simone Biles talking to Hoda about the need
for accountability.
So we stopped to protect those athletes and figure out
why it happened,
who knew what when. The latest settlement is going to
139 victims who were either involved with the FBI during
the botched investigation or who were abused by Nasser during
the time the FBI failed to act after receiving reports
of abuse. John Manley has represented hundreds of Nasser's victims,
including dozens involved in this case.
They were trying to say this was just bureaucratic bungling.
No, it wasn't. It was a lie and it was
law enforcement assisting a pedophile.
Yeah, this was a real mess.
And this day is like,
a long time coming. So have the victims spoken out
about this at all?
Well, the attorney you just heard from who represents some
of them say says that they are relieved and exhausted.
This has been a long time coming.
They hope that they never have to hear Larry Nasser's
name again.
It brings the total compensation through various settlements to over
$1 billion.
It includes 500 victims in in those cases.
It's a lot of money.
But beyond the money, there is this hope that it
creates institutional change,
that young women who come forward with allegations like this
are taken serious,
are heard. Yeah. All right,
Stephanie, thank you so much.