Report: FBI engaging in settlement talks with Larry Nassar Survivors

The Survivors of Larry Nassar announced in June, via lawyers, that they would be suing the FBI and seeking more than $1 billion from the Federal agency for failing to stop the sports doctor when the agency first received allegations against him.

Now, according to legal and congressional sources, the FBI has reached out to the Survivors to begin settlement discussions.

The news comes as senior Justice Department officials traveled to Capitol Hill on Thursday to explain their reasons for not prosecuting two former FBI agents who failed to act sooner in the Nassar case.

The Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz detailed the botched FBI probe of Nassar in a report last year, coming to the conclusion that while the FBI failed to act, more girls and women were abused at the hands of the former USA Gymnastics doctor.

Lawyers for many of those Survivors – including Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman – filed paperwork this year signaling their intent to sue.

“My fellow survivors and I were betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us — the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, the FBI and now the Department of Justice,” Maroney said in a written statement this year.

Jamie White, an attorney representing a group of Survivors, heard from a government official on Wednesday.

“My clients have been through extreme trauma and were relieved to see the government is open to a dialogue,” White told NPR. “While dialogue is a positive step in the right direction, we remain prepared to hold parties accountable through an adversarial process if necessary.”