Simone Biles Breaks Down at FBI's Nassar Failures: 'I Blame an Entire System'
Source: Daily Beast
Celebrated Olympic gymnast Simone Biles delivered emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, slamming the “entire system” that she says enabled disgraced Olympic doctor Larry Nassar to sexually abuse her and hundreds of other young women and girls. “To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse,” Biles said as she fought back tears during the Senate hearing on the FBI’s mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against Nassar.
Biles said that USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee knew that she was being abused by their official team doctor and yet did nothing. Then, in July, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a bombshell report that detailed the FBI’s stunning failures to properly investigate allegations against Nassar. While senior officials at the FBI Indianapolis Field Office sat on their hands, more than 70 athletes continued to be abused, the report found. Investigators then lied to when confronted with those failures to act urgently. Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics this summer after withdrawing from a majority of the Games, citing mental distress.
Three other star gymnasts testified Wednesday—McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, who was identified as “Athlete A,” the first person to lodge claims against Nassar in the summer of 2015, citing abuse that began when she was 15 years old and led to back pain. Raisman said the trauma of coming forward with abuse allegations was so severe that she often struggled with basic tasks. “I didn’t even have the energy to stand up in the shower,” Raisman said. “I would have to sit on the floor and wash my hair because standing up was too exhausting for me.”
“I’m 27 years old and my 80-year-old grandfather has more energy than I do,” she added. In a fiery testimony, Maroney said that she was shocked when she learned that the FBI had not just failed to fully investigate her abuse claims. When agents documented her allegations more than a year later, they had fabricated their own narrative and made “entirely false claims” about what she said during an interview, she said. “They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others,” Maroney said.
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/simone-biles-mckayla-maroney-give-fiery-testimony-at-hearing-on-fbis-larry-nassar-failures
I know shit is hitting the fan...
= new reply since forum marked as read
These young women are testifying to give their personal voices to crimes the DOJ has investigated and informed congress of.
Oh, and they've fired one of the agents involved so far.
Remember, this is not tRump's or any other Republican administration's DoJ. It's Biden's.
DOJ's response so disappointing.
The years when these depraved criminal behaviors were hidden are over.
rather than only of government run by Democratic leaders.
Now that my husband and I are older and run with the Geritol generations, I'm amazed that we know a number of people who are suspicious of prescription medications and prefer alternatives that invariably haven't gone through the FDA required clinical trials and approval process.
We don't know anyone who's actually died from a standard prescription medication, but I can think of 4 right now who claim they almost died from one or more, mostly blood pressure medications I think, and are alive because they took themselves off them -- and were forced to find unapproved alternatives that work much better.
I know, highly unlikely that she would have felt comfortable telling the president about being molested, but I think he would have and could have helped.
