Simone Biles and other gymnasts ask the FBI for $1,000 million for the handling of the case of sexual abuse of Larry Nassar

By Sarah FitzpatrickNBC

A group representing 90 young women -- including U.S. Olympic team gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman -- filed federal damages lawsuits against the FBI on Wednesday, seeking more than $1 billion in wrongdoing. office management in its investigation into the sexual abuse of former USA Gymnastics Federation physician Larry Nassar. 

Most of the plaintiffs allege that Nassar abused them after they reported him to the FBI in 2015, during a year-long period in which no meaningful investigation was launched and Nassar continued to sexually abuse young women and children.

Many are athletes who were associated with the USA Gymnastics program or Michigan State University, where Nassar maintained a clinic.  

[“We suffer and continue to suffer”: Olympic gymnasts denounce FBI failures in sexual abuse case before the Senate]

The Justice Department announced just before Memorial Day weekend that individual FBI agents identified by the inspector general as responsible for the failure of the investigation - and subsequent attempts to mislead FBI investigators Department of Justice Inspector General - would not face charges.

Larry Nassar at the Eaton County Circuit Court in Charlotte, Michigan, on February 5, 2018. Cory Morse / The Grand Rapids Press via AP file

"My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us: the United States Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, the FBI and now the Department of Justice," Maroney, an Olympic gold medalist, said in a statement.

"It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is through the legal process," she added.

Class administrative claims are brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people who have been harmed by the negligent or wrongful actions of the federal government to seek redress.

[FBI Made “Fundamental Errors” Investigating Sexual Abuse Accusations Against Physician Larry Nassar, Official Report Says]

Thirteen other Nassar victims filed similar lawsuits against the FBI in April.

While Wednesday's filing was not the first under the law, it is the largest, and includes Nassar's most prominent accusers.

Raisman, Maroney and others have testified before Congress, holding the FBI accountable. 

The claims detail a one-year gap between the time the FBI first received reports of Nassar's abuse of US national team gymnasts and his eventual arrest as a result of a local police investigation, not the FBI. .

U.S. Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and NCAA and world champion Maggie Nichols during a Senate court hearing on the inspector general's report on the FBI's handling of the Larry Nassar sex abuse investigation American gymnasts, on Capitol Hill, on September 15, 2021 in Washington DCSaul Loeb / Getty Images

“The FBI knew that Larry Nassar was a danger to children when his abuse of me was first reported in September 2015. For 421 days they worked with USA Gymnastics and USOPC to hide this information from the public and allowed Nassar to continue abusing Larry Nassar. young women and girls.

It's time for the FBI to be held accountable," said NCAA national champion gymnast Maggie Nichols, the first Nassar victim whose case was reported to the FBI's Indianapolis field office.

(USOPC is the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.)

[Father of victims attempts to assault Larry Nassar]

The FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In testimony before Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged that "the people at the FBI had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and they failed."

Nassar pleaded guilty in 2018 to molesting 10 of more than 265 patients who came forward to say they had been molested.

He is serving up to 175 years in prison.