Simone Biles says USA Gymnastics, FBI mishandled sex abuse probe

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Internationally-renowned gymnast Simone Biles blasted the FBI and USA Gymnastics on Wednesday, saying they mishandled the sex crime probe into disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar.

“I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse," Biles said in gut-wrenching congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee knew that I was abused by their official team doctor long before I was ever made aware of their knowledge."

"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," she added, using acronyms to refer to USA Gymnastics and the Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Biles further charged that it "feels like the FBI turned a blind eye to us."

Her testimony comes in the wake of a damning report from the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General, which brought to light in July numerous errors in the FBI's probe of Nassar that allowed him to continue his abuse for weeks.

It determined agents failed to respond to allegations of sexual abuse against Nassar "with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies."

"Further, when the FBI’s handling of the Nassar matter came under scrutiny from the public, Congress, the media, and FBI headquarters in 2017 and 2018, Indianapolis officials did not take responsibility for their failures," the report added.

Nassar pled guilty to multiple sex crimes, and has been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. He was accused of molesting over 130 former patients, including former Olympic gold medalists.