The Michigan Attorney General has closed his investigation into how much Michigan State University knew about child rapist Larry Nassar's actions after the release of more than 6,000 relevant documents revealed no new information, but he slammed the university for not releasing the documents for so long.
“Our review of these documents leaves us wondering why that step was not taken years ago and does not provide new grounds for continuing our investigation,” Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said in a statement. Obtained by The Detroit News.
“As a result of our investigation, no new relevant information has been uncovered and therefore this investigation must be closed.”
After Nassar, a longtime sports doctor for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, was first publicly accused of sexually assaulting numerous underage gymnasts in 2016, the universities claimed they knew nothing about a decades-long pattern of abuse.
Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison in 2018. That same year, the Michigan Attorney General launched an investigation into the school's handling of the scandal, but despite turning over more than 100,000 documents, the school suppressed an additional 6,000 documents for nearly five years, citing client-attorney privilege.
MSU resisted their release for so long that the investigation was closed in 2021, but the files were eventually made public and the case reopened in 2023 when the university's new leadership took office.
After completing its review of the withheld documents, Nessel's office concluded there was no new information and said it was perplexed as to why the school administration fought so hard to conceal them.
“This investigation provides no reason to amend our previous statements that Michigan State University 'got defensive' and 'obstructed' despite its promise to fully cooperate with our investigation,” Nessel's office said in a summary of its findings.
“To the contrary, this investigation further corroborates those statements and creates a sense of confusion as to why Michigan State University concealed these documents for so long,” the attorney general continued, adding that the university's resistance delayed closure for victims for years.
Nessel's office also concluded that the school's assertion of client-attorney privilege was unjustified and that the lengthy period of non-disclosure gave victims a “false hope” that the documents contained answers.
“Simply put, there remains no satisfactory answer to the question of why this abuse continued against so many people for so long without Michigan State University or anyone else trying to stop it,” Nessel said Wednesday.
“To us, it seems a bit unlikely, right? This is a big university, obviously with a huge number of employees. I guess one would have expected to find a bit more than what we found,” she added.
Only three Michigan State University associates were charged in the Nassar case, and two of those charges were dropped.
William Strampel, a former dean of the MSU School of Osteopathic Medicine, was convicted of willfully negligent conduct in supervising Nassar and served a short prison sentence.
The university's former president, Lou Anna Simon, was charged with lying to police but the charges were dropped, and the women's gymnastics coach, Kathy Klages, was convicted of lying to police but the conviction was dropped.
Nassar's abuse dates back to the 1990s and affected hundreds of victims, including famous Olympic gymnasts such as Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.
If you live in New York State and have been sexually assaulted, you can receive free, confidential crisis counseling by calling 1-800-942-6906. If you live outside of New York State, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at 1-800-656-4673.
