WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI made numerous serious errors in investigating allegations against former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar and didn't treat the case with the "utmost seriousness."
That's according to a Justice Department's inspector general released Wednesday.
The long-awaited watchdog report raises serious questions about how the Justice Department and the FBI handled the case.
It highlights serious missteps at the FBI between the time the allegations were first reported until Nassar's arrest.
USA Gymnastics contacted the FBI about the allegations in July 2015, but it took months before the agency opened a formal investigation.
According to the Associated Press, during 14 months, close to 40 girls and women were molested while the FBI knew about the allegations against Nassar.
USA Gymnastics officials said they contacted Los Angeles feds in May 2016 after eight months of inactivity from Indy agents, the AP reported.
The report stated that "despite the extraordinarily serious nature" of the allegations against Nassar, the inspector general's office found that the feds in Indianapolis' response lacked the "utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required."
The former American gymnastics doctor was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison in 2018.
