[Just The News] The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday heard testimony from U.S. champion gymnasts, including Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Maggie Nichols regarding the sexual abuse they experienced for years at the hands of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.As the hearing began, an intermittently tearful Biles told the panel that it felt like "the FBI turned a blind eye to us and went out of its way to help protect" the organizations that enabled her abuse.
"A message needs to be sent: If you allow a predator to harm children, the consequences will be swift and severe," she said.
Senators on the committee called for a hearing on the issue following an Office of the Inspector General report in July by DOJ IG Michael Horowitz, who found significant errors, omissions and untruths by FBI personnel in the investigation of Nassar.
Opening the hearing, committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called the FBI's handling of the Nassar case a "stain on the bureau" and "a shocking picture of FBI dereliction of duty and gross incompetence."
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the committee, concurred with Durbin, calling the failure "a serious problem at the heart of the FBI, not a case of a few errant agents."
Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney detailed the abuse she endured from Nassar for years in graphic detail before the committee and excoriated the FBI's failure to pursue a timely and accurate investigation into the rampant abuse.