The United States Senate
Judiciary Committee heard testimony from US Olympian gymnasts on FBI’s alleged
mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against former USA Gymnastics doctor
Larry Nasser. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney told lawmakers on Wednesday that
she felt betrayed by FBI agents for failing to seriously investigate former USA
gymnastics doctor Larry Nasser when he sexually assaulted her, according to a
Reuters report.

McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles,
Aly Raisman and Maggi Nichols testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee
as it investigates FBI’s alleged mishandling of the investigation. During her
testimony before the committee, Maroney recalled how she spent hours on the phone
telling FBI officials details of her story in 2015 even before she told her
mother about the sexual abuse she had faced during the London Olympics.

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“We have been failed and we deserve answers,” Olympian Simone Biles told the Senate judiciary committee.

Maroney said that it was only
in July this year that the Justice Department unveiled a report on what the FBI
did based on the information they had obtained from her. “Not only did the FBI
not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months
later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,” McKayla Maroney told
the committee.

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Wednesday’s hearing follows
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz releasing a report on
July which blasted the FBI for ‘botching’ its investigation that apparently
allowed the sexual abuse to continue for months. Horowitz too is expected to
testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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The FBI’s investigation into
sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nasser began in 2015, after the USA
Gymnastics President and CEO Stephen Penny reported the allegations to the
bureau’s Indianapolis field office.

The FBI field office, led by
Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott at the time, did not formally initiate an
investigation. The bureau interviewed one of the witnesses months after the
complained was lodged and even failed to formally document the interview in an
official report well after the FBI arrested Larry Nassar on charges of possessing
sexually explicit pictures of children.