Washington — The FBI’s handling of child sexual abuse investigations continues to fall short in key areas, years after the scandal involving U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar that rocked the federal agency, an internal watchdog said in a new report issued Thursday.
The Justice Department’s inspector general found that while the FBI has updated its policies and training to improve agents’ response to allegations of sex offenses against children, noncompliance among the bureau’s personnel persists. The new audit is an outgrowth of the Justice Department’s investigation into the FBI’s mishandling of allegations from youth gymnasts under the care of Nassar that he was sexually abusing them.
In 2021, an inspector general report found that the FBI learned Nassar had been accused of molesting gymnasts in 2015, but failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target victims for months. Nassar is serving multiple prison sentences after pleading guilty to charges of sexual abuse and child pornography in 2017 and 2018.
In the wake of the scandal, the FBI implemented new policies and training programs, and FBI leadership pledged policy overhauls.
In April, the Justice Department agreed to pay $138.7 million to settle 139 claims against the FBI for its handling of the investigation in a civil suit brought by Nassar’s victims.
The inspector general report
As part of the new report, federal auditors randomly selected 327 cases involving child sexual abuse between October 2021 and February 2021 and evaluated whether FBI agents and supervisors followed proper protocols to ensure the investigations were followed through appropriately.
According to the inspector general, 42 of those cases required immediate investigative action because of a lack of activity or reporting to local authorities as required. The FBI determined its agents needed more investigative work in 43% of those cases.
The inspector general highlighted one example in which the FBI received allegations of sexual abuse against a child by a registered sex offender but failed to investigate for more than a year. In that time period, according to the report, the offender was able to victimize another child.
The audit also found deficiencies in FBI personnel reporting allegations of abuse to local law enforcement and social services within a required 24 hour window.
“We found no evidence that FBI employees complied with mandatory reporting requirements to [state and local] law enforcement in 47 percent of incidents or to social service agencies in 50 percent of incidents,” the report said. And if the agents actually filed a report, the inspector general found only 43% complied with the 24 hour requirement.
One of the key deficiencies highlighted in the original Nassar report focused on the FBI Indianapolis Field Office’s failure to properly transmit allegations to officials in a California field office for further investigation.
Thursday’s inspector general report found that issues remain in how field offices transfer complaints during investigations. The Justice Department watchdog highlighted 26 cases in which field offices transferred information concerning child sex abuse cases.
“We found only one incident that was fully compliant with the new policy” that followed the Nassar probe, the report said. While 25 of those cases were identified as deficient due to errors in documentation and 21 were assigned in the recipient office within a 24 hour period, but the report highlighted the need for further compliance with all measures to ensure proper investigative steps are followed.