The White House on Wednesday hailed the courage of the Olympic gymnasts who testified before Congress about the sexual abuse they endured and the failure of federal investigators to promptly assist them.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at Wednesday’s briefing that the testimony of Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols, and Aly Raisman about their abuse by Larry Nassar was “incredibly powerful.”
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“All of these women … came forward and spoke about the abuse of a monstrous human being that they lived through,” she said. “They’re playing a role from preventing this from ever happening again.”
Psaki said President Joe Biden was unable to watch the congressional testimony but staff had kept him informed. She added that the Justice Department was working to take steps recommended in an inspector general’s report to avoid similar missteps in future investigations.
Biles told lawmakers that the Olympics, relevant governing committees, and the FBI all failed at their jobs when the allegations against Nassar, a former team doctor, first surfaced.
“As an elite gymnast, I have had the honor to represent the United States of America in multiple international competitions, including world championships and the Olympic Games. Over the course of my gymnastics career, I have won 25 World Championship medals and seven Olympic medals for Team USA. That record means so much to me, and I am proud of my representation of this nation through gymnastics,” Biles said. “I am also a survivor of sexual abuse, and I believe without a doubt that the circumstances that led to my abuse and allowed it to continue are directly the result of the fact that the organizations created by Congress to oversee and protect me as an athlete, USA Gymnastics, and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee failed to do their jobs.”
A report by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded that senior officials at the FBI’s Indianapolis branch “failed to respond” when the crimes were reported in 2015 “with the utmost seriousness and urgency that the allegations deserved and required” and “made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and failed to notify state or local authorities of the allegations or take other steps to mitigate the ongoing threat posed by Nassar.”
“These failures by Indianapolis officials contributed to a delay of over a year in the proper FBI field office and local authorities initiating investigations that ultimately determined that Nassar had engaged in widespread sexual assaults of over 100 victims and possessed child pornography, led to convictions in both federal and state court and resulted in jail sentences totaling over 100 years,” Horowitz wrote.
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“There’s an IG investigation, which is an important process and one that should be followed, and the president certainly supports that,” Psaki said when asked if Biden still had confidence in the FBI chief. “Obviously, the FBI director was also testifying today and spoke to his views of what went wrong here, so I’d point you to that.
“I sit before you today to raise my voice so that no little girl must endure what I, the athletes at this table, and the countless others who needlessly suffered under Nassar’s guise of medical treatment, which we continue to endure today,” Biles said on Wednesday. “We suffered and continue to suffer because no one at the FBI, USAG, or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us. We have been failed, and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs, but those who enabled deserve to be held accountable.”
