Gymnast Simone Biles at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.MIKE BLAKE / Reuters
Leading gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman will testify Wednesday before a Senate committee on sexual predator Larry Nassar, who is serving a life sentence. The hearing is part of an Upper House investigation into the mismanagement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the case of the former doctor of the US women's gymnastics team, which allowed him to continue to sexually harass. girls and young people. About 70 women have been abused by Nassar since the FBI learned of the first accusations against the criminal, in July 2015, and his arrest, in November 2016.
Biles, a five-time world champion, along with fellow Olympic medalists McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols will testify in the first panel of the Sept. 15 hearing, the Senate Justice Committee reported Monday.
“I am no longer afraid to tell my story.
I, too, am one of the many survivors of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse, ”Biles tweeted on January 18.
The four gymnasts will participate in person, according to an assistant to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, quoted by NBC.
The second panel will feature FBI Director Christopher Wray and Justice Department (OIG) Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
More information
Simone Biles, the woman who has changed everything
In mid-July, Horowitz's office published a report detailing the “numerous and fundamental mistakes” made by the FBI in the investigation into the sexual abuse committed by Nassar over 20 years of more than 300 athletes from the Federation of Gymnastics and Gymnastics. from Michigan State University.
The document concluded that the serious failures of the Indianapolis (Indiana) office allowed the predator to continue abusing female athletes, many of them minors.
"The OIG found that, despite the extraordinary seriousness of the allegations and the possibility that Nassar's conduct would continue, FBI agents in Indianapolis failed to respond to the allegations with the seriousness and urgency they deserved and needed," he says. the document, which emphasizes that the conduct violated several internal policies of the Bureau.
The devastating report maintains that the agents were not interested in the case.
The only gymnast they interviewed was Maroney and her testimony was not properly documented until February 2017. Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 10 minors in a Michigan court in January 2018. He received a sentence of 40 to 175 years in prison, which was added to the other 60 that he was already serving in prison for crimes of child pornography.
“I just signed your death warrant.
You have done nothing so that you deserve to be free anymore, "said the judge on the day she announced the sentence.
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