Blumenthal Calls on Garland to Conduct a Full Prosecutorial Review of the FBI, USA Gymnastics, and USOPC Following Nassar Abuse Case

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to conduct “a new review of the information related to the Nassar investigation, USA Gymnastics and USOPC to determine whether there are additional cases where prosecution is necessary to hold wrongdoers accountable.”

Blumenthal noted that he and U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) had referred former U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 and 1505 and had not received a response. Blumenthal also noted that the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, whose office was directly involved in investigation of Larry Nassar’s abuse of athletes, is now representing one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who is accused of mishandling the case and making false statements to the DOJ Inspector General.

“It was an institutional breakdown,” Blumenthal said. “And to date, there has been no accountability for anyone in power.”

Blumenthal’s request follows the DOJ’s decision not to prosecute either of the FBI agents who failed to act on reports they received about Nassar’s abuse and later lied to investigators in an attempt to cover up their missteps. Last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that DOJ would review its previous decision to defer prosecutions in this case.

Today, after observing that the DOJ had not sent a witness to an earlier Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Inspector General report detailing the FBI’s misconduct, Blumenthal urged Garland to “now, in effect, show up by providing an explanation of whatever its decision is with respect to the prosecution of those agents.” Blumenthal noted that the Justice Manual for the Department of Justice encourages explanatory case-closing notification letters “in cases of police misconduct and other cases involving law enforcement officer subjects.”

Blumenthal and Moran repeatedly pressed the DOJ IG to investigate and report on the FBI’s handling of the Nassar case after uncovering evidence of misconduct during their eighteen-month investigation into systemic abuse within the U.S. Olympic movement. Their joint congressional investigation was launched the day after Larry Nassar was sentenced to prison and included four subcommittee hearings, interviews with Olympic athletes and survivors, and the retrieval of over 70,000 pages of documents.

Last year, Congress approved Blumenthal and Moran’s sweeping Olympic reform legislation to reform the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in the wake of abuse allegations that touched nearly all corners of Olympic sport.

Today, Blumenthal announced that he would continue working with Moran to ensure effective oversight of USOPC and the national governing bodies that oversee amateur sports:

“I am announcing that in the Commerce Subcommittee I chair, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, we're going to continue to work where Senator Moran and I began years ago – we literally began it years ago with the investigation and Olympics reform legislation. We're going to engage in further oversight of the United States Olympic and Paralympics Committee, the national governing bodies and SafeSport to ensure their purported commitment to safety is not an empty promise. The gymnasts have asked us, they deserve it, and we’re going to fulfill that obligation.”

The video of Blumenthal’s exchange with Garland is available here and the full transcript is copied below.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Thank you. Welcome to our committee, Mr. Attorney General, and let me begin by thanking you and your team for the sense of integrity and transparency that you’ve brought to the Department of Justice after a time when the rule of law in the greatest law enforcement agency in the history of the world was gravely threatened by a lack of that dedication and commitment. I think it's very important what you have done, even though we may have differences of opinion, we may disagree but nobody can doubt your commitment to the rule of law.

I want to ask you about a matter – I know you're familiar with it. Last month, the Committee held a hearing on the FBI's mishandling of the Larry Nassar investigation. Larry Nassar was convicted of the most heinous kind of abuse, with respect to young athletes and gymnasts, particularly four brave women shared their stories with us, they showed up to tell those stories in spite of the very grave obstacles.

The Inspector General concluded that two FBI agents made false statements during their investigation into Nassar, and to the IG himself, the Inspector General. During the investigation, the FBI agents lied. He referred those cases to the Department of Justice.

What I'd like to ask is that the Department of Justice now, in effect, show up by providing an explanation of whatever its decision is with respect to the prosecution of those agents.

The Deputy Attorney General announced the criminal division was conducting a new review, as you know, and that new information has come to light. While we wait for that review to be completed, what I am seeking from you is a commitment that you will explain the decision, when it's made.

I recognize as a former prosecutor that declinations typically are not explained, but the Justice Manual itself says that in criminal civil rights cases, “It is often the practice to send case closing notification letters and cases closed [without] indictments or prosecution,” because cases “often spark intense public interest even when they’re not prosecuted,” and that such letters are “particularly encouraged in cases of police misconduct and other cases involving law enforcement officers and subjects.”

In this case, we have exactly that situation and I'm asking for a commitment that you will provide an explanation for your decision.

Garland: Senator, this is a hard problem for us, the part of the manual that you’re talking about is about violations of the Civil Rights Act and then what we’re talking about here are false statements. Needless to say if the result of this review is prosecution, that will become public. The question of how much, whether, and how much we can say, if all we do is decline, I'm going to have to take that back for consideration. I take your point and I will think about it very carefully as will the Criminal Division.

Blumenthal: I understand you're not ruling it out but I’m going to continue to press for an explanation. I think the gymnasts deserve it – so does the American public. I hope you'll make a decision to provide a full and complete explanation, because I think the credibility of the decision will largely depend on it.

Let me just say, in my view, we need to do more than focus on the FBI agents that the Inspector General referred for prosecution because this failure was an institutional failure. Institutional to the FBI, to USA Gymnastics and the entire Olympic system. It was an institutional breakdown. And to date, there has been no accountability for anyone in power.

To that end, I am announcing that in the Commerce Subcommittee I chair, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, we're going to continue to work where Senator Moran and I began years ago – we literally began it years ago with the investigation and Olympics reform legislation. We're going to engage in further oversight of the United States Olympic and Paralympics Committee, the national governing bodies and SafeSport to ensure their purported commitment to safety is not an empty promise. The gymnasts have asked us, they deserve it, and we’re going to fulfill that obligation.

But in my view the Department of Justice has to do more as well, given the FBI's gross mishandling of the Nassar investigation. I believe a review of all of the information related to Nassar and the USOPC more broadly is warranted here because there are other examples of potential misconduct that deserve a fresh look.

For instance, Senator Moran and I referred the former CEO of the USOPC to the Department of Justice for potentially perjuring himself before our subcommittee in 2018. We don't know what, if anything, the Department did with that referral. We've heard virtually nothing.

In addition, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, whose office was involved in the Nassar investigation, is now representing one of the disgraced FBI agents. He’s representing one of the FBI agents referred for prosecution. I don't know whether that's a violation of ethical rules or some other kinds of Department of Justice policies, but it raises significant questions and the Department should have an interest in them.

So, I hope that we can expect more from you by way of explanation and I hope that we can count on you for a new review of the information related to the Nassar investigation, USA Gymnastics and USOPC to determine whether there are additional cases where prosecution is necessary to hold wrongdoers accountable.

Garland: The institutional failure that you speak of is quite apparent. I thought the testimony by the gymnasts was heart wrenching, and they were courageous.

The FBI director has adopted all the recommendations of the Inspector General and is putting them into effect. In addition, we have adopted new regulations and new authorities within the Department to be clear that if the FBI is investigating a case of assault on a child and determines that it no longer or doesn't have jurisdiction, it immediately inform the relevant state or local prosecutors and law enforcement – this isn't what happened in the Nassar circumstance – and ensure that that is done so that the state and local will be able to continue. Likewise, with respect to transfers from one FBI office to another – another failure in that case – that those be monitored to ensure those transfers occur.

We take this extremely seriously. What happened is just awful, and you have the commitment of the Justice Department and of the FBI director and the FBI to make these kinds of institutional changes to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

Blumenthal: I appreciate those points, but as you well know because of your own long and impressive record as a prosecutor, there's nothing like accountability, individuals being held accountable to send a message, particularly a deterrent message to an institution. Thank you.

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