A congressional hearing recently shined a spotlight on the FBI for turning a
blind eye to one of the biggest sexual abuse scandals in the country, Dr. Larry Nassar and
his molestation of former Olympic team gymnasts. Legal reporter Mollye Barrows joins me now to talk
about how the FBI botched their investigation into sex offensive, offenses that were just
so awful. So many.
Yeah. So, okay. So the predator piggy, I've always called Nassar the predator piggy. He absolutely
is an awful, awful person. Yes.
So 70 girls, 70 girls molested. Three hundred over the course of his career.
Yeah, yeah. 70 in the years
time when the FBI failed to do anything. Right. That's, that's the point. They have
70 complaints and these, these, these FBI types, the, you know, J Edgar Hoover guys.
That's right. Do nothing, right?
That's right. That's a throwback, but yes, you're exactly right. And you certainly,
they were certainly taken to task by the inspector general's department. And they, you know, had
testified before Congress and were basically put their feet to the fire about why they didn't do
more with the information that they were given. And in so many ways, it's really not just the
FBI it's institutions that failed time after time. It's the FBI, it's Michigan State University. It's
certainly USA gymnastics. And it seems like the FBI was just one player in this big institutional
push to keep these girls quiet because they were making money off of them. And they were being
successful in their efforts, you know, to bring successful Olympians to, to the world stage. But.
So, so you've got, you got, you got Nassar in prison.
Yes. 175 years. Still no talk of suicide attempts,
which is unusual. So, but, but, here's what really grabs me about this story.
You got 2, 2, 2 FBI agents, Jay Abbott and a guy named Langman.
Yes, Michael Langman. Both of them agents.
Abbott, while he supposed to be investigating this whole thing is actually trying to strike a deal
with the people he's investigating. That's right.
So he can get a job as an investigator. Yes.
He wants to come out and have a, have money, which they granted. We're going to give you money.
Now you tell me, why wasn't Langman and why wasn't Jay Abbott prosecuted?
Because they really don't want to make a change in the system is the way it comes across to me
because they're the ones that are ultimately responsible for the FBI not doing more sooner
with the allegations that came forward. It all happened in the spring of 2015. You had a couple
of girls that came forward and said, hey, we've got a problem with Nassar. Stephen Penny, who was
CEO of USA gymnastics did absolutely nothing with it. Three months after the report, first report
came in and he told this child that he was gonna report it to the FBI. He met with Abbott at a bar
to discuss a possible security job with the Olympic committee.
Yeah. Now don't miss, don't miss, don't miss this. This was child molesting
you understand. Yes, absolutely.
This was, these kids were underage. They were children.
Their parents were isolated. They were isolated from their families at this ranch in Texas,
where they do the, most of their training. Nassar knew it. The FBI
knew it. There's so many failures with these. And it, so we'd like to say it was incompetence.
And oh, by the way, these are the folks that are protecting US citizens from terrorist attacks.
This is the same FBI we're counting on to protect us from terrorism in this country.
Like we saw with, you know, the towers. Right.
When the FBI didn't do their job and CIA didn't do there job. So this, this is something the FBI
has got to scramble around and the only way to do that, you can't just let these guys go and say,
it's okay. You got to prosecute these people. I know.
He was trying to work out a job for himself, man. Instead, they let him retire before he could face
any kind of penalty. And Michael Langman is the field agent who worked under Abbott
in that Indianapolis field office. He took one of the reports as well and did nothing
with it for a year. And it was during that years time, between June of 2015 and 2016,
when basically more reports started to come out. You had the Indianapolis Star do they report.
Simultaneously, another girl filed a criminal complaint, um, with the police at MSU. And you
want to talk about another institutional failure. That University, everybody knew about this guy.
Yeah. And nobody did anything with him.
We've seen that story time and time again. But they weren't with the FBI.
They weren't with the people that we pay to protect us and protect our children.
And how insignificant these girls must have been to them to do nothing about it. But they'll all
come out in droves when the cameras are shining. Jay, Jay, Jay Abbott, we're going to show a
picture of Jay Abbott, he wanted a job. Yes.
That's what he wanted. He didn't give a about the fact that he was going to let this child
molester go. Right.
I want to follow up on this. I want to see what, I want to follow the life of this Jay Abbott.
Yes. I want to see what the guy's up to now.
Thank you for joining me. Okay. Thanks, Pap.