Durbin Statement On Damning Report Finding Continued Widespread FBI Mishandling of Child Sexual Abuse Investigations Following Larry Nassar Case
Durbin announces full committee oversight hearing later this year in response to this report, which was requested by Durbin and a bipartisan group of Senate Judiciary Committee members
CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement after the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a damning report on its audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) compliance with policies in child sexual abuse investigations. The DOJ OIG audit was conducted in response to a request from Durbin and a bipartisan group of Senate Judiciary Committee members in 2021.
“The FBI’s failures enabling Larry Nassar’s abuse of young victims continue to remain a stain on the Bureau. Today’s report shows that new policies implemented by the FBI to address these egregious failures are effectively being ignored, leading to similar abuses as seen in the Nassar investigation. It’s shameful that the FBI is continuing to fail victims.
“The FBI must answer for the Inspector General’s grave findings. In 2021, Director Wray testified to the Committee that what happened with Nassar was ‘inexcusable… and we’re doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.’ But it is still happening. That’s why I’m announcing an oversight hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the FBI’s mishandling of child sexual abuse, to be held later this year. In the meantime, I urge prompt adoption of all the Inspector General’s recommendations.”
Among other items, the DOJ OIG reports that:
- From October 2021 through February 2023, the FBI opened 3,925 investigations that included claims of hands-on sex offenses to children. OIG sampled 327 of those cases in its audit.
- OIG flagged 42 of these cases—13 percent of the sample—for further FBI review because OIG believed immediate action needed to be taken due to “lack of recent investigative activity, lack of logical investigative steps, not reporting suspected child abuse to appropriate agencies, leads that were not appropriately covered, and instances of substantial non-compliance with FBI policies.”
- Failures like the aforementioned led to at least one incident where FBI non-compliance with their new policies led to another child being harmed by a subject already under investigation prior to OIG flagging the case.
- The most prevalent issue across investigations was non-compliance with mandatory reporting requirements. All FBI personnel are mandatory reporters, yet there was no evidence that FBI employees complied with reporting requirements to state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement in 47 percent of incidents or to social services in 50 percent of incidents.
- FBI requirements also mandate reporting suspected child sexual abuse to state, local, tribal, and territorial partners within 24 hours of learning the facts. When FBI employees did make a report, the audit found the 24-hour notification occurred in only 43 percent of incidents and only 17 percent were fully documented. The audit also found that 40 percent of the incidents reviewed did not include evidence in the tips management system that the FBI responded to an allegation of child sexual abuse within 24 hours, as is required by FBI policy.
- These continued failures actually mark a “substantial increase in the total number of reports made by FBI employees after updates to FBI policy in September 2021 following issuance of the OIG Nassar Report.”
- OIG made 11 recommendations for the FBI to put controls in place to monitor compliance going forward. The FBI has agreed with all 11 recommendations.
In 2021, Durbin held a Judiciary Committee hearing on the FBI’s dereliction of duty in the Larry Nassar abuse case, with questioning of and testimony from Olympic and world champion gymnasts, FBI Director Wray, and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Shortly after this hearing, DOJ announced an internal review of its earlier decision to decline prosecution of the FBI agents who committed misconduct in the Nassar case. DOJ later again declined to bring charges.
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