The Inspector General's office has concluded that the FBI mishandled the investigation of Dr. Larry Nassar. Well, actually, it's far worse. Failures by the FBI include lying, failing to document what little investigation they did, failure to realize that the accused was crossing state and national lines and was extremely likely to have violated federal law, and a lot more. The only thing they did right was to forward hard drives containing Nassar's stache of child porn to a federal prosecutor, really--and you don't get a whole lot of credit for sending that obvious of an open and shut case to the prosecutor.
Needless to say, Rachael Denhollander has some very pointed thoughts about this that are worth reading. The rather bitter joke among rape survivors is if you want to smuggle something past the police, just put it in a rape kit box, because you know the police won't look at that. Sad to say, the FBI has given survivors a lot more reason to make that joke.
It's sadly one of a long list of strange decisions by federal investigators that brings to mind a question; are people at the FBI for sale, or are there political motivations at play in what they investigate? Nassar didn't merit a grand jury or a subpoena, as far as I can tell. Martha Stewart was investigated for years after Jim Comey determined her stock sale was not criminal--destroying thousands of times more investor equity than was gained or retained in her stock sale. The same Jim Comey didn't convene a grand jury or issue a single subpoena in the Hilliary Clinton case that appeared to be open and shut. Patrick Fitzgerald chased after Scooter Libby for process crimes for years after he knew that there was no crime committed by unmasking Valerie Plame's status, and the same guy mysteriously "leaked" the Rod Blagojevich investigation right when the list of names would have been really interesting--and potentially devastating to the Democratic Party in Illinois.
The same Patrick Fitzgerald "exonerated" MSU in the Nassar case without as much as a report. Half a billion dollars in lawsuits later, and I think we know what quality of investigation he did there, and yes, it does suggest the man is for sale.
It reminds me of something I pointed out when a former coworker exulted in the return of Elian Gonzalez to Cuba because my coworker didn't like Cuban exiles; "If the law doesn't work for people you hate, it won't work for you, either." It's time for a serious house-cleaning in federal law enforcement.
2 comments:
"If the law doesn't work for people you hate, it won't work for you either."
Good words. I'm sorry that the wheels of justice are grinding to a halt for those women. It's too bad, but we've been living in a dysfunctional banana republic for quite a while. Many of us are just waking up to it.
No doubt. The thing that really troubles me is that there are multiple field offices at the FBI where multiple people--dozens I'd guess--were aware of the case, but couldn't even be bothered to document their work or do a real investigation. How does one sleep at night knowing that inaction might be allowing dozens of people at MSU, USA Gymnastics, and the US. Olympic Committee to keep allowing people to be violated instead of spending some time at the graybar hotel?
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