FBI

FBI director says he’s ‘deeply’ sorry to Nassar victims

by Jordan Williams - 09/15/21 1:04 PM ET

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday apologized to the victims of Larry Nassar for the way his agency handled abuse allegations against the gymnastics doctor.

“I want to begin by saying to the brave women who testified this morning … I’m deeply and profoundly sorry to each and every one of you,” Wray said in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Sorry for what you and your families been through. I’m sorry that so many different people let you down over and over again. And 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, and that is inexcusable,” Wray said.

Wray’s comments followed testimony from gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols, who have all alleged that Nassar abused them.

The Senate hearing follows a bombshell report from the Justice Department’s inspector general that faulted the agency for not handling the allegations against Nassar in a serious manner.

Wray said on Wednesday that he ordered the review when he heard that there were people in the FBI who failed Nassar’s victims. He said the findings detailed in the report were not reflective of FBI as a whole.

In his testimony, Wray confirmed that he had fired Michael Langeman, the supervisory special agent at the FBI’s Indianapolis office during the Nassar investigation.

“When I received the inspector general’s report and saw that the supervisory special agent in Indianapolis had failed to carry out even the most basic parts of the job, I immediately made sure he was no longer performing the functions of a special agent,” Wray said.

Wray said he plans to take further action.

“It’s my commitment to you that I and my entire senior leadership team are going to make damn sure everybody at the FBI remembers what happened here in heartbreaking detail,” Wray said.

“We need to remember the pain that occurred when our folks failed to do their jobs. We need to study it, we need to learn from it,” Wray said.