June 17, 2020 VIA OVERNIGHT DELIVERY Mr. Michael Horowitz Inspector General U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 RE: Public Release of OIG Report on FBI Actions in the Larry Nassar Case June 17, 2020 will mark the five year anniversary of the day on which against former USA Gymnastics National Team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of Olympic and National Team athletes was first reported to USA Gymnastics. According to published reports, former USAG President Steve Penny first reported allegations of Nassar’s abuse to the FBI on July 27, 2015, 40 days later. In interviewing only a single victim telephonically in September of 2015, the FBI would not interview any other victims or other key witnesses until the spring and summer of 2016. In September of 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department Office of Inspector General was investigating how the FBI handled sexual-abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, amid claims FBI agents failed to respond to complaints from gymnasts in 2015. The Justice Department, however, still has not released the OIG report on the FBI’s role in the Nassar scandal nearly two years after the OIG official leading the investigation told parties in the case that the investigators’ report had been forwarded to the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. As we approach the five year anniversary of the initial report and the two year anniversary of the OIG investigation, more than 600 known survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse and the public have still not received this report and still need to know who in the FBI and the Department of Justice was responsible for failing to protect so many vulnerable children and young women from a known sexual predator. Here is what we do know from the public record. On June 17, 2015, Rhonda Faehn, then USA Gymnastics senior vice president for its women’s program, received a text from Sarah Jantzi, Maggie Nichols’ club coach. Jantzi asked Faehn to call her. During the ensuing phone call Jantzi outlined some of Nassar’s “treatments.” When pressed by Jantzi, Nichols told the coach about “three uncomfortable encounters of therapy with trainer Larry Nassar” including massaging her groin area “too close to the vagina,” according to Faehn’s notes. Faehn reported the call to Penny that day. Faehn later testified in a statement to the Senate Commerce subcommittee investigating the Nassar scandal. “He [Penny] told me not to say anything or do anything because he was going to handle everything going forward and he told me he was going to report the concerns to the proper authorities, which I assumed included law enforcement.” June 17, 2020 Page 2 Penny was in regular contact with W. Jay Abbott, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis office, from July 27, 2015 when the national governing body first contacted the FBI with allegations that Nassar had sexually assaulted Team USA gymnasts under the guise of performing medical treatment. Penny not only kept Abbott and other FBI officials updated on the availability of potential victims to be interviewed by the FBI, and developments with Nassar, but also asked Abbott and other agents for advice and help in managing Nassar and the media, and in some cases for favors in how the FBI presented and handled the case, according to emails. The favors included Penny asking agents to withhold information from potential victims, according to emails. During the FBI’s initial steps in investigating Nassar, Penny and Abbott also discussed on multiple occasions the possibility of Abbott becoming the U.S. Olympic Committee’s chief of security after his retirement from the bureau, an idea first floated by Penny, according to emails. Penny recommended Abbott to USOC officials during this same time frame. While Penny and Abbott continued to meet and discuss the USOC position in October 2015, FBI agents were still months away from interviewing Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman, the first two known victims of Nassar at the time. They were also months away from following up on allegations made by McKayla Maroney in a September 2015 telephone interview with the agents that she was sexually assaulted by Nassar at the 2011 World Championships in Japan and the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The FBI did not interview other victims or other key witnesses until the spring and summer of 2016. Maggie Nichols’ mother, Gina Nichols, was not interviewed by the FBI until the spring of 2016. Maggie Nichols was interviewed in July 2016, more than a year after Jantzi contacted Faehn. The FBI finally arranged an interview with Aly Raisman in September 2016, 15 months after the bureau was first told that she was also a potential victim of Nassar. Agents informed Aly Raisman the interview would take place, not in her Boston area home, or at an FBI office a half-hour away, but at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and with Penny on the grounds. Aly Raisman said her protests against this arrangement were ignored by agents. Aly’s mother, Lynn Raisman, and Gina Nichols encouraged the FBI on multiple occasions to investigate USA Gymnastics and the USOC’s handling of the Nassar case. According to court documents, Nassar sexually abused more than 40 young athletes between Penny’s first contact with the FBI agent in charge of the bureau’s Indianapolis office in July 2015 and September 2016, when Nassar’s abuse became public. It is clear that the FBI failed to protect our nation’s finest athletes and many other vulnerable children and young women from a vicious sexual predator. But we still do not know who exactly in the FBI participated in the cover up and whether misconduct reached into the higher ranks of the Justice Department. Why is the Justice Department sitting on this report? We do not want it withheld and then have authorities claim they cannot indict and prosecute the people involved in criminal conduct because the statute of limitations has expired. It is important for our healing for all the facts to come out and for wrongdoers to be held accountable. It is also important to maintain public confidence in our federal law enforcement agencies by exposing the truth and initiating reforms so that this never happens again. June 17, 2020 Page 3 We, the undersigned survivors of Larry Nassar, respectfully ask you to release this report to the public. Sincerely, Maggie Nichols Simone Biles Aly Raisman Jamie Dantzscher Rachael Denhollander Jeanette Antolin Jessica Howard Madison Kocian Kyla Ross Mattie Larson Sarah Klein Jessica Smith Jenica Lurie Taryn Akemi Look Gwen Anderson Reed Anderson Christina Barba Amanda Barterian Jennifer Bedford Katie Black Larissa Boyce Vanasia Bradley Elizabeth Brady Jade Capua Lyndsy Carr Arianna Castillo Katie Clevenger Taylor Cole Olivia Cowan Chelsea DeLamielleure Jaime Doski Jane A2 Doe Jane A7 Doe Jane A9 Doe Jane A12 Doe Jane A20 Doe Jane A33 Doe Jane A38 Doe Jane A55 Doe Jane A62 Doe Jane A63 Doe Jane A64 Doe Jane A65 Doe Kat Ebert Ashley Erickson Courtney Faynor Jon Faynor Erin Freier Kenzie Gassaway Megan Ginter Trinea Gonczar Katherine Gordon Amanda Green Louise Harder Christine Harrison Jennifer Hayes Elizabeth Heilman Lisa Hovey Jessica Howard Annette Howlett-Hill Kara Johnson Madeline Johnson Jenny Johnstone Madeleine Jones Amy Klepal Emily L. Morales Amy Labadie Taylor Livingston Ashton Locklear Kaylee Lorincz Jenica Lurie Chandler Lynn Kate Mahon Rebecca Marklund Emily Meinke Jane A80 Doe Jane A89 Doe Jane A90 Doe Jane A92 Doe Jane A108 Doe Jane A109 Doe Jane A111 Doe Jane B10 Doe Jane B108 Doe Jane B34 Doe Jane B46 Doe Katie Middleton Taundra Mitchell-Faynor Alexis Moore Danielle Moore Jenelle Moul Eve Petrie Erin Poliquin Kassie Powell Sterling Riethman Stephanie Robinson Alexandra Romano Raelene Schifano Lindsey Schuett Laura Scudder Marion Siebert Katelyn Skrabis Jessica Smith Jillian Swinehart Clasina Syrovy Jessica Tarrant Samantha Ursch Morgan Valley Chrissy Weathersby Ball Mimi Wegener Kourtney Weidner Ashleigh Weiszbrod Morgan White Kathryn White Chelsea Williams Lindsay Woolever Chelsea Zerfas Jane B54 Doe Jane B55 Doe Jane B57 Doe Jane B65 Doe Jane B67 Doe Jane B7 Doe Jane B77 Doe Jane B8 Doe Jane BUG70 Doe Jane BUG77 Doe Jane BUG86 Doe Jane BUG91 Doe John BUG82 Doe