The department said it was reviewing its initial decision to not seek charges against agents who failed to pursue sexual abuse allegations against Lawrence G. Nassar.
The Justice Department is reviewing its decision not to prosecute the F.B.I. agents who failed to pursue allegations of sexual abuse made in 2015 against Lawrence G. Nassar, the former physician for U.S.A. Gymnastics who was convicted two years later on state sex abuse and federal child pornography charges, a top department official said on Tuesday. The unusual review comes months after the Justice Department’s watchdog issued a scathing report that sharply criticized how the F.B.I. handled the case, which first came to its attention when U.S.A. Gymnastics reported sexual abuse allegations to the bureau’s Indianapolis field office in July 2015. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz found that senior F.B.I. officials failed to notify state or local authorities or take steps to mitigate the threat that Mr. Nassar posed. Mr. Horowitz’s report found that the special agent in charge of the field office, W. Jay Abbott, lied to the inspector general’s investigators to hide his personal conflicts in the case and downplay errors that the F.B.I. had made. But the Justice Department ultimately chose not to prosecute Mr. Abbott, who retired in January 2018. Another agent from the same office, Michael Langeman, was fired over his handling of the matter. The victims and their families, along with members of Congress, have sharply criticized the Justice Department’s decision not to further investigate the men or explore false-statements charges against them.
