The FBI is opening settlement discussions with survivors of sexual assault by former U.S. gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, according to legal and congressional sources.

News of the outreach came as senior Justice Department officials traveled to Capitol Hill on Thursday to explain their reasons for declining to prosecute two former FBI agents for their failures in the Nassar case.

In a rare step, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite met with key Senators and their staff members to explain the Justice Department's legal reasoning--and to offer suggestions for new legislative proposals moving forward.

The Justice Department's inspector general detailed the botched FBI probe of Nassar in a scathing report last year. IG Michael Horowitz said that while the FBI failed to act, Nassar abused dozens more girls and women.

Watchdogs concluded that the bureau "failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies."

FBI Director Christopher Wray apologized to the hundreds of survivors in testimony before Congress in September 2021.

"I'm especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed," Wray said.
"And that is inexcusable. It never should have happened, and we're doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again."

Lawyers for...

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