WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee; Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ranking Member of
the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and
Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today announced that the Senate Judiciary
Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s (FBI) dereliction of duty in the Larry Nassar case, which
enabled the continued abuse of dozens of victims.
“The FBI’s failure in this case led to more athletes
being victimized. This Committee has the responsibility of oversight of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation—and will hold a hearing to examine this
injustice and to prevent future, similar tragedies,” Durbin said.
“Since revelations surfaced of Larry Nassar’s
exploitation of young athletes in 2017 and the FBI’s failures to properly
investigate, I’ve aggressively worked to uncover how these crimes were allowed
to happen for so long, and strengthen protections for young athletes to prevent
terrible crimes from occurring in the future. The IG report confirms my
fears that the FBI dropped the ball, allowing abuses to continue for months.
The Judiciary Committee’s upcoming hearing is a continuation of our oversight
to get to the bottom of this. The FBI owes the American people an
accounting for its failure to protect these children, and explanation for how
it plans to do better in the future,” Grassley
said.
“The FBI’s failure to investigate Larry Nassar
allowed at least 70 young women to be assaulted by him. No one should have to
endure the horrors these young women suffered through. I want thank the inspector general for his review and hope this
hearing will provide the survivors with more answers and ensure that claims of
assault and demands for help won’t be ignored in the future,” Feinstein said.
“The FBI’s gross mishandling of the reports of
Nasser’s abuse led to more athletes suffering unimaginable pain. There must be
accountability for this chilling failure to properly investigate—and false
statements potentially intended to cover-up that failure. Director Wray must answer to the Judiciary
Committee and the American people for the findings of this report, immediately
terminate the agent involved, and explain in detail what steps are being taken
to guarantee this never happens again,” Blumenthal said.
Grassley
also
testified to his
concerns about the FBI’s handling of the Nassar investigation at a 2018 Senate
Commerce Committee
hearing
and worked with that panel’s leaders to develop additional protections for
young athletes, enacted as part of a
Commerce
Committee package.
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