Year. stephanie elam, thanks very much. right now four elite gymnasts including olympian simone biles, they are on capitol hill set to testify this hour about the abuse they suffered at the hands of dr. larry nassar and the fbi s failed investigation into those allegations. plus democrats staring down a long list of key deadlines. the pressure is on to get all 50 dems on the same page. president biden meeting with two of the holdouts. later, a murder mystery, an opioid problem, a failed plot to organize a hit. all of this dealing with one prominent south carolina attorney. the latest bizarre turn in a family tragedy.
Without the support of any of my family. i am a strong individual and i will persevere, but i never should have been left alone to suffer the abuse of larry nassar, and the only reason i did was because of the failures that lie at the heart of the abuse that you are now asked to investigate. again, i appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with this committee today. i want to sincerely thank each of you for joining the survivors of this abuse to do what we all can to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. thank you. thank you, ms. biles. ms. maroni. you have to push the button on your microphone. are we on? there. good morning, thank you chairman durbin, ranking member grassley and members of the judiciary committee for inviting
Me to speak. as most of you are probably aware, i was molested by larry nassar. in actuality, he turned out to be more of a pedophile than he was a doctor. what i m trying to bring to your attention today is something incredibly disturbing and illegal. after telling my entire story of abuse to the fbi in the summer of 2015, not only did the fbi not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report, 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what i said. after reading the office of inspector general s oig report i was shocked and deeply disappointed as this narrative they chose to fabricate. they chose to lie about what i said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me, but countless others. my story is one in which special agent in charge jay abbott and his subordinates did not want you do hear, and it s time that
They falsified my statement, and that is illegal in itself. yet no recourse has been taken against them. the department of justice refused to prosecute these individuals. why? deputy attorney general lisa monaco couldn t bring herself to be here today. it s the department of justice job to hold them accountable. i am tired of waiting for people to do the right thing because my abuse was enough, and we deserve justice. these individuals clearly violated policies and were negligent in executing their duties, and in doing so, more girls were abused by larry nassar for over a year. to not indict these agents is a disservice to me and my teammates, a disservice to the system which is built to protect all of us from abuse, a disservice to every victim who suffered needlessly at the hands of larry nassar after i spoke up. why are public servants whose
Stain on the fbi forever. here is what is important. the inspector general, once they released their report we have heard this, but he s saying it in the room, there were criminal referrals made to the attorney general for prosecution. the attorney general s office opted to not act on that. richard blumenthal is saying we need answers why. he s saying the attorney general s office was invited to this hearing today. they declined to participate or even be here. he wants the attorney to do some explaining as to why they aren t acting on these fbi officers. the indianapolis field office was the lead. he s just saying right now that the fbi from coast to coast let these girls down. we are minutes away from these olympics and world class athletes to testify before this hearing about the abuse that they received at the hands of
That led to my abuse and allowed it to continue are directly the result of the fact that the organizations created by congress to oversee and protect me as an athlete, usa gymnastics and the united states olympic and paralympic committee, failed to do their jobs. nelson mandela once said there can be no keener revelation of a society s soul than the way in which it treats its children. it is the power of that statement that compels and empowers me to be here in front of you today. i don t want another young gymnast, olympic athlete or any individual to experience the horror that i and hundreds of others have endured before, during and continuing to this day in the wake of the larry nassar abuse. to be clear sorry.
I tell you. in the summer of 2015, like i said, i was scheduled to speak to the fbi about my abuse with larry nassar over the phone. i was too sick to go meet with anyone in person and talking about this abuse would give me ptsd for days. i chose to speak about it to try to make a difference and protect others. i remember sitting on my bedroom floor for nearly three hours as i told them what happened to me. i hadn t even told my own mother about these facts, but i thought, as uncomfortable and as hard as it was to tell my story, i was going to make a difference and hopefully protecting others from the same abuse. i answered all of their questions honestly and clearly and i disclosed all of my molestations i had endured by nassar to them in extreme detail. they told me to start from the beginning. i told them about the sport of gymnastics, how you make the national team and how i came to meet larry nassar when i was 13
Medal, how he gave me presents, bought me carmel macchiatos and bread when i was hungry. i even sent screen shots of nassar s last text, mikayla, i love how you see the world through rose-colored glasses. this is cookie cutter abuse. i told the fbi all of this and they chose to falsify my report and not only minimize my report, but silence me yet again. i thought given the severity of the situation they would act quickly for the sake of protecting other girls. instead, it took them 14 months to report anything when larry nassar, in my opinion, should have been in jail that day. the fbi, usoc and usag sat idly by as dozens of girls and women continued to be molested by larry nassar. according to the oig report, about 14 month after i disclosed
take your time. to be clear, i blame larry nassar and i also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse. usa gymnastics and the united states olympic and paralympic committee knew that i was abused by their official team doctor long before i was ever made aware of their knowledge. in may of 2015 ronda fayan, the former head of usa gymnastics women s program was told by my friend and teammate, maggie nichols, that she suspected i, too, was a victim. i didn t understand the magnitude of what all was happening until the indianapolis star published its article in the fall of 2016 entitled former usa gymnastics doctor accused of abuse. yet while i was a member of the 2016 u.s. olympic teams, neither
Probably four to six inches of rain. those winds are still 30 miles per hour with this. we will keep watching it for you. even had a couple of tornado warnings this morning. have to watch out for that as well. ryan young, chad myers, thanks so much to both of you. let s go back to capitol hill where the senate judiciary committee hearing is going to is under way. senators examining the inspector general report of how the fbi handled investigations into former usa gymnastics dr. larry nassar. there s one of the gymnasts who will testify. let s listen in. a leader on and off the floor, rise man uses her platform for abuse education. after we swear in the witnesses, each witness will have five minutes to provide their opening statements. there will then be one round of questions in this extraordinary