Watchdog says FBI greatly mishandled Nasser-USA gymnastics case

A watchdog report released Wednesday said that the FBI made numerous and serious errors in its investigation of former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar over allegations of sexual child abuse in 2015.

The Justice Department's Inspector General report said the FBI didn’t treat the case with the "utmost seriousness," and had made a series of missteps in the investigation between the first allegations against Nasser in 2015 and his arrest in 2016, according to the Associated Press.

The report claims that the FBI took months for the Bureau to open a proper investigation into the doctor after USA Gymnastics then-president Stephen Penny had reported Nasser to the FBI in 2015.

The watchdog claimed that during a 14 month period in which the FBI was aware of the sexual abuse allegations against Nasser, at least 40 girls and women said they were molested. The report also shows USA Gymnastics contacted the FBI after an eight-month period of inactivity by the Bureau in 2016.

The report said the FBI made "numerous and fundamental errors" in their investigation and "despite the extraordinarily serious nature," did not respond with the "utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required."