Disgraced former sports doctor Larry Nassar was assaulted by inmates at the Arizona penitentiary where he is serving a de facto life sentence after pleading guilty to sexual assault and child pornography charges, according to court documents.

Nassar was "physically attacked" within hours after being released into the general population at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona, according to documents filed Tuesday by Nassar's attorneys in Ingraham County Circuit Court.

Nassar's attorneys are asking that he be re-sentenced by a different judge in the first of the molestation cases he face. Nassar, 54, who is serving a 60-year federal sentence for possessing child pornography, was also sentenced to up to 175 years in state prison for molesting seven girls.

The news of Nassar's prison assault was first reported by The Detroit News.

Nassar's attorneys said in the court documents that they believe Judge Rosemarie Aquilina decided to impose the maximum sentence allowed before the sentence hearing even started.

They point to her statements, including that she might let people do to Nassar what he admitted doing to the young gymnasts if the Constitution did not prohibit cruel and unusual punishment.

In an interview with The Detroit News, Walt Shannon, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3955, said fights occur in prison. "The inmates watch our staffing level," Shannon told the newspaper. "If they're going to do something ... It is going to happen when staffing is low."

Nassar has been accused of molesting 265 girls and women over two decades under the guise of medical treatment.