For months Lynn Raisman tried to find out why the FBI had not interviewed her daughter Aly, the three-time Olympic gymnastics champion, about being sexually assaulted by U.S. Olympic and USA Gymnastics women’s national team physician Larry Nassar.

Steve Penny, USA Gymnastics president and chief executive officer, admonished Raisman to keep quiet, insisting that the FBI investigation of Nassar was proceeding, she said. The FBI wasn’t returning Raisman’s emails or telephone calls, she said. At one point an FBI official informed Raisman that one of the agents handling the case “doesn’t have to call you back if he doesn’t want to,” she recalled.

The FBI finally arranged an interview with Aly Raisman in September 2016, 15 months after the bureau was first told that she was 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 were ignored by agents.

RELATED: USA Gymnastics, USOC enabled Nassar’s sexual abuse, report claims

So the Raismans were surprised when FBI agent Michael Hess, and Sean Lewis, a U.S. attorney, showed up at their home in June 2017. Hess and Lewis, without informing her attorney of their plans, wanted Aly Raisman to sign off on a plea agreement in which in return for Nassar pleading guilty for child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s office would not pursue charges related to his sexual assaults on Raisman, McKayla Maroney (another Olympic champion), and Mattie Larson, a World Championships medalist, while they competed for the U.S. in foreign countries.

“They were trying to make Aly feel like it wasn’t that bad,” Lynn Raisman recalled, referring to her daughter’s abuse.

The Raismans are among a group of Olympic and World champions and medalists, U.S. national team members and their parents demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General release the findings of its investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Nassar case.

Release of the findings, the gymnasts and their parents said, is vital to understanding possible missteps by the FBI during the Nassar investigation and what role, if any, agents played in helping Penny and other USA Gymnastics officials conceal the doctor’s abuse from the public and future victims for 16 months.

Justice Department investigation of FBI’s role

Between August and October 2018, Office of Inspector General investigators and FBI agents from local field offices interviewed Raisman, Maroney and Jordyn Wieber (another Olympic champion), and Maggie Nichols (a 2015 World champion), and their parents about the FBI’s investigation of Nassar, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Southern California News Group.

The Justice Department, however, still has not released the OIG report on the FBI’s role in the Nassar scandal nearly a year 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. Two federal prosecutors in the PIS also confirmed they had received the report nearly a year ago, the attorney involved in the case said.

Outraged gymnasts and parents have in public statements and interviews with Congressional investigators long accused the FBI of enabling Nassar’s continued abuse of young female athletes by the plodding pace of an investigation that lacked the sense of urgency the gravity of the charges required or by potentially aiding Penny in USA Gymnastics’ alleged cover-up. Parents said they repeatedly offered FBI agents emails, texts and other materials that pointed to an alleged cover up by USA Gymnastics only to be informed by agents that their only focus was Nassar.

Lynn Raisman recalled one instance in particular where she offered to provide email and texts from Penny and other USA Gymnastics officials, coaches and employees to an FBI agent on the case. The agent turned down her offer.

“This was after the Nassar (guilty plea),” Raisman said. “I said are you ready now to investigate USAG and the USOC? And he said we’re really not interested in that. That seems like a civil suit.”

“I really don’t understand the FBI,” Raisman continued. “Nassar was brought to the FBI’s attention and the FBI did nothing for months and months.”

The gymnasts and parents said they are concerned that by not releasing the OIG report, the Justice Department is protecting agents who were allegedly complicit in Nassar’s continued abuse.

Nassar, according to court documents, sexually abused at least 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. The number of victims in that window could actually surpass 100, according to persons familiar with dozens of Nassar-related lawsuits.

“It’s no secret that victims of abuse still have to demand accountability from the corrupt institutions who enabled our abusers. We’re tired of waiting,” Maroney, in a rare public statement on the Nassar case, said in an email to SCNG. “It’s past time for the Office of Inspector General to make their report and subsequent findings public.

“Though progress has been made, so much truth has not yet seen the light of day. Justice for myself and all my fellow gymnasts won’t be served until that day arrives.

“I encourage the Office of Inspector General and the Department of Justice to do what is right, over what is expedient, and end this relentless cycle of criminality once and for all.”

The FBI, Gina Nichols, Maggie’s mother, said, “did a terrible job” in the Nassar case.

“I hope the Department of Justice is not doing the same thing now,” she said. “The FBI didn’t protect (the victims). They need to be held accountable. To me what they did was criminal as well.”

Head of USA Gymnastics was in regular contact with FBI agent

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. USA Gymnastics, a tax exempt, non-profit organization, is based in Indianapolis.

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.

“Certain agents did everything they could to delay, deflect and dodge and make sure this thing went away for USA Gymnastics and the USOC,” said John Manly, an attorney for more than 100 Nassar victims.

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 period.

“Those emails are about as outrageous as anything I can imagine,” Manly said emails in which Penny and Abbott discussed the USOC post. “Would (Abbott) feel comfortable telling the victims he’s negotiating for that job while he’s conducting the investigation? Of course not.”

Abbott was provided a list of questions related to the Nassar case by SCNG but did not respond to a request for comment. A 30-year FBI veteran, Abbott retired from the bureau in January 2018.

The gymnasts and their families are concerned that by not releasing the OIG report or delaying its release the Justice Department is jeopardizing potential criminal and civil cases against FBI agents.

While Penny and Abbott continued to meet and discuss the USOC position in October 2015, FBI agents were still months away from interviewing Nichols and Raisman, the first two known victims of Nassar at the time, or following up on allegations made by Maroney in a Sept. 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.

“It’s important that the OIG report come out because it’s important to understand how this happened,” Manly said. “Why is the Justice Department sitting on this report? I don’t want it withheld and then have the authorities say they can’t indict the people involved in this because the statute of limitations have expired.”

Glenn B. McCormick, a first assistant U.S. attorney and the spokesman for the OIG investigation said in an email “I cannot comment on matters that are or could be under investigation or consideration by DOJ.”

OIG has released more than 170 reports, investigative summaries, audits, and memorandums since August 2018 when investigators first interviewed Maroney.

A U.S. Senate subcommittee investigation into the Nassar case found that the “FBI had opportunities to stop Nassar but failed to do so.”

“The FBI failed to pursue a course of action that would have immediately protected victims in harm’s way,” said a subcommittee report released this past July.

The first report on Nassar, in 2015

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 Nassar” including massaging her groin area “too close to the vagina,” according to Faehn’s notes.

Faehn reported the call to Penny that day.

“He 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,” Faehn said in a statement to the senate subcommittee.

It was a scenario that would be repeated throughout the next year, Penny and FBI agents instructing victims, their parents and coaches, top level USA Gymnastics employees and coaches, to not say anything, according to interviews and emails. Meanwhile Penny, while consulting with the FBI, scrambled to keep Nassar’s case from the public, according to interviews, USA Gymnastics and FBI emails and court documents. It would eventually be revealed that Nassar sexually assaulted more than 300 women, including all five members of the record-shattering, gold medal winning 2012 U.S Olympic team, and multiple Olympic and World Championships team members.

Nassar announced in September 2015 he was retiring as USA Gymnastics women’s national team physician. Neither he nor the organization disclosed the reason for his leaving.

Penny was arrested in October 2018 after a Texas grand jury indicted him on felony evidence tampering charges. The September 2018 indictment alleges Penny ordered the removal of documents related to Nassar’s activities from the Karolyi Ranch, the central Texas site of the U.S. national team training camps. The indictment alleges Penny, aware of the ongoing investigation, intentionally destroyed or concealed the materials in November 2016. USA Gymnastics national teams manager Amy White has testified that on the orders of Penny she removed several boxes of medical records and other documents relevant to the Nassar investigation from the Karolyi Ranch in November 2016, according to a transcript of a sworn deposition obtained by SCNG.

Penny has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. He was forced to resign his USA Gymnastics position under pressure from the USOC in March 2017.

“These young women sacrificed their childhoods to compete for their country and they did so with honor and dignity,” Manly said. “And in return they’ve been treated dishonorably and inhumanely not just by USA Gymnastics and the USOC but also by the FBI and certain people at DOJ.”

Penny first reported allegations of Nassar’s abuse to the FBI on July 27, 2015, 40 days after Jantzi first reached out to Faehn. The following day, July 28, Penny, Paul Parilla, USA Gymnastics vice chairman and an Orange County attorney, Scott Himsel, then USA Gymnastics’ counsel, met with Abbott and two other agents at the FBI’s Indianapolis office. Abbott told USA Gymnastics officials during the meeting not to take any actions that might interfere with the FBI’s investigation.

Penny followed up with Abbott a day after the meeting.

“Thanks again for speaking with me today,” Penny wrote in an email to the agent. “We greatly appreciated the FBI’s assistance and counsel at the time…

“Below are two pieces of our communication strategy moving forward. We wanted to share them with you for your quick review to be sure they are consistent with FBI preferences. Please let me know if you concur with our messaging.”

Penny then shared with Abbott in the email a draft of USA Gymnastics “Proposed media statement should one be necessary” and a proposed draft on an email to Nassar.

The proposed media statement read in part “USA Gymnastics places the safety of its athletes at the forefront of our efforts, and it will cooperate with law enforcement and address any further concerns brought to our attention.”

“The question here Jay is whether or not we should say ‘will cooperate’ or ‘is cooperating,’” Penny wrote Abbott.

An hour later Abbott wrote back “I concur with your below proposed media statement as provided (‘will cooperate’) and given the assessment of FBI’s involvement , I do not see any issues with your proposed communication to Dr. Nassar.”

The following morning Penny emailed Abbott again, attaching an email Nassar had sent Himsel.

“I am so sorry to continue bothering you with this issue…” Penny wrote. “As you can see below we have a very squirmy Dr. Nassar. Our biggest concern is how we contain him from sending shockwaves through the community. In our conversation with Scott, we are trying to make sure any correspondence with him is consistent with FBI protocol. Right now we are looking for a graceful way to end his service in such a manner that he does not ‘chase the story.”

Abbott wrote back “You are certainly able to advise Dr. Nasser [sic] as you deem appropriate and we in no way want to hinder that or lead you to believe you must follow an ‘FBI Protocol’ though the FBI will not confirm or deny any ongoing investigation OR assessment.”

Parents of the victims continued to inquire about the FBI investigation, and along with Penny tried to schedule victim interviews with the bureau. FBI Agent Gregory Massa wrote Penny in an August 12, 2015 follow-up email about scheduling a Maroney interview “We’ve made it a priority and will ensure the interview gets scheduled and conducted.”

But Lynn Raisman said Michael Langeman, an FBI agent briefed extensively on the Nassar case, told her “we determined with USA Gymnastics that we didn’t have jurisdiction.”

Langeman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Maroney was eventually interviewed by the FBI over the phone around Sept. 4. During the interview, she described “explicit criminal conduct” by Nassar.

“As we discussed by phone, it is my understanding that pertinent interviews have been completed and the results have been provided to the FBI and the USAO in Michigan (Detroit) for appropriate action if any,” Abbott wrote in a September 4, 2015 email to Penny.

Interviews with victims and key witnesses took time

Yet the FBI would not interview other victims or other key witnesses until the spring and summer of 2016. 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. Like Lynn Raisman, Gina Nichols said she encouraged Hess and the FBI on multiple occasions to investigate USA Gymnastics and the USOC’s handling of the Nassar case.

Hess, Nichols recalled, “just kept repeatedly saying my only job is to get Larry Nassar.”

“The FBI never did a thing to help any of us,” Nichols said.

Maroney told senate investigators she could not recall any further communication with the FBI between her September 2015 interview and when she was interviewed by Hess in September 2016, this time in person in Southern California.

“According to Maroney’s recollection, during the 2016 interview, the FBI did not acknowledge the 2015 interview or explain why they had not yet acted on the information provided in the 2015 interview,” according to the senate report.

After repeated inquiries by Lynn Raisman, the FBI also interviewed Aly Raisman in September 2016. “I asked why it took so long and Michael Hess said they were waiting until after the Olympics,” Lynn Raisman said.

For several months, Lynn Raisman said, Penny repeatedly told her “he was coordinating interviews for the FBI.” Emails also show Penny was heavily involved in the FBI scheduling interviews with potential victims and witnesses.

In September 2016, Penny told her “good news, I’m coordinating interviews for the FBI.” For more than a year, the Raismans had requested an FBI interview in Boston. Now Hess was telling them the interview would take place at the Olympic Training Center where Raisman and other Olympic team members were scheduled to train for a post-Olympic exhibition tour.

“For months we had asked them, ‘Please come to Boston, we’ll make sure it works out,’” Lynn Raisman said. “Now they want to do it at the training center. I remember Aly saying ‘This is really scary.’ There were all these USAG and USOC people around there. They didn’t want to do it in Boston and now they want to do it right under the noses of USAG and the USOC. That’s a not a good spot.”

Hess, however, insisted the interview proceed in Colorado Springs, Raisman said.

Nassar sexually assaulted all five members of Team USA during the 2012 Olympic Games. In addition to sexually abusing Maroney during the 2011 Worlds he sexually assaulted Larson at the 2010 Worlds in Rotterdam, Netherlands. But during the summer of 2017, despite the victims agreeing to testify against Nassar at trial, the FBI and U.S. Attorney pushed the women to approve the plea deal where the physician would only face child pornography charges. The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office in meeting with the gymnasts told them other victims were unwilling to testify against Nassar, according to three people familiar with the discussions. Manly was also outraged that his clients had been contacted by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office without consulting him.

“I’ve represented sex abuse victims for 25 years,” Manly wrote Lewis, the assistant U.S. Attorney who met with the Raismans in July 2017. “I’ve never seen any law enforcement agency make a plea bargain in a child molest case before consulting the victims and their families about it.

“That communication fosters trust, understanding and respect. Instead of doing that you made a bad deal and are now trying to sell it with misrepresentations. For example all of my clients report that you told them no one wants to testify against Nassar. Well of course (child sexual abuse) victims are reticent to testify. If that was the standard not to proceed, no CSA case would ever be tried. None of my clients want to testify but they ALL will if necessary to convict Nassar.”

Lewis referred questions to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“The United States prosecuted Larry Nassar for sexually exploiting children and secured a 60-year sentence – an effective life sentence for a 54-year-old predator,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a statement to SCNG. “Utmost care and consideration were given to the victims in reaching a resolution of the federal case. In fashioning this resolution, the United States made sure that the victims’ stories would be heard and that “the full scope of the defendant’s misconduct – including his long history of hands-on sexual assaults” would be taken into consideration at sentencing, regardless of whether that conduct was charged, uncharged, or even chargeable in federal court.

The United States argued in its sentencing memorandum that all of his sexual assaults, no matter how the law might categorize them, supported a serious sentence. For example, the memorandum explained the narrow sense in which federal law defines “sexual abuse and exploitation of a minor,” while also asserting that the fact that certain sexual assaults did not “meet the highly technical definition of the term . . . does not make the victims any less victims of sexual assault as that term is commonly understood, nor does it lessen the impact these assaults had on them or the threat the defendant poses to the community.”

In regards to specific allegations made by the Raismans, the Nichols and other gymnasts and their parents and attorneys, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in the statement “As a general matter, we do not comment on case-related work beyond the record of public proceedings. More specifically, we treat our communications with victims as confidential and decline to comment on statements made by individuals.”

Penny continued to ask the FBI for favors in 2016.

“I have one request regarding any further steps you might take,” Penny wrote in a May 11, 2016 email to Hess. “If there is anyway you can not identify that USA Gymnastics has filed the complaint against Dr. Nassar when you talk to people, but generally suggest that a ‘complaint has been filed.’ I would greatly appreciate it. It will keep things on a much more level playing field if no one can point in any one direction.”

Hess referred questions from SCNG to a spokesperson in the FBI’s Los Angeles office. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles office declined comment “Due to the pending investigation” and referred the matter to the FBI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. A spokesperson at FBI headquarters said the bureau had no comment and referred questions to the OIG investigation.

FBI didn’t contact Michigan State police for four months

At the time of Penny’s email to Hess, the FBI was still four months away from contacting for the first time Andrea Munford, a lieutenant with the Michigan State University police. Nassar, a member of the university’s sport medicine staff, continued to see athletes on the school’s sports teams and other patients at the university sports medicine clinic after his “retirement” from USA Gymnastics. Munford would eventually be the lead investigator in a state criminal case in Michigan that led to Nassar pleading guilty to sexual assault.

But Munford told senate investigators that she wasn’t contacted by the FBI about Nassar until she received a phone call from Hess Sept. 12, 2016, more than 400 days after Penny first spoke with Abbott about the case. Hess told Munford the FBI was investigating Nassar for federal sex crimes involving interstate travel. Local police in Michigan executed a search warrant at Nassar’s home after a criminal report was filed on Sept. 20, 2016. The search found computer devices belonging to Nassar that contained child pornography. The FBI’s Lansing office took over the case because of stricter federal sentences for child pornography.

Munford told senate investigators that it was her understanding the FBI in Lansing had no prior knowledge of Nassar.

“Munford and an attorney in the Michigan Attorney General’s office requested FBI reports on the Nassar investigation. Lewis denied the request due to ‘FOIA laws,’ but allowed Munford and the attorney to view the FBI’s reports and take notes,” according to the Senate report.

Nearly a year before the FBI contacted Munford, just after 5 p.m. on the evening of October 20, 2015, Penny received a lengthy email from Abbott.

By this point Penny and Abbott had been in regular contact about the Nassar case. But Abbott’s email this time wasn’t about Nassar During the initial months of the FBI investigation of Nassar, Penny and Abbott had discussed USOC chief of security position. Penny later even recommended Abbott to Larry Buendorf, the outgoing USOC security chief. The USOC did not hire Abbott.

“I wanted to let you know that I found a great guy who might be the perfect fit for your role when you decide to leave,” Penny wrote Buendorf. “His name is Jay Abbott and he is the senior agent in charge at the FBI office in Indianapolis. Let me know if you would like to speak with him.”

Now in October 2015, Abbott was writing to give Penny a heads up about the agent’s appearance in a local television report later that night about law enforcement efforts to reduce violent crime in the state.

Abbott also touched on the USOC position.

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Special Report: Maggie Haney still working with gymnasts despite suspension “Also … just another quick ‘thank you’ for the beer and conversation a few weeks ago,” Abbott wrote. “I very much appreciate what you did. Though I realize there would be many qualified applicants, the position with the USOC is truly a tantalizing and interesting possible opportunity post-Bureau that I continue to think about.

“Cheers and thanks again.”

Abbott followed up later that night by sending a link to the TV report to Penny at 10:54 p.m.

Penny responded 14 minutes later.

“This is great. Thanks for sharing. I am going to forward to Larry. Great piece.

“Thanks for everything you do.”