DETROIT — Thousands of documents turned over by Michigan State University reveal nothing new about what the school might have known about years of sexual abuse by Larry Nassar, the campus doctor who assaulted female athletes, the state attorney general said Wednesday.
“I was surprised that we didn't find anything incriminating,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said at a news conference.
“It seems a little unlikely to us, doesn't it?” he said. “This is a major university, obviously with a lot of employees working there. I guess the expectation is that we'll find a little bit more than we did.”
Nassar, who also worked for USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympic athletes, is serving decades in prison for sexual assault committed under the guise of treatment, as well as other crimes. In 2018, Michigan State University agreed to a $500 million settlement with hundreds of people, mostly women, who said he abused them with his hands.
For years, Nessel and his predecessor clashed with lawyers for Michigan State University and its elected board of trustees over the release of records. While more than 100,000 documents were initially turned over to investigators, another batch of 6,000 was withheld under attorney-client privilege until this year.
Since the Nassar scandal broke in 2016, Michigan State has repeatedly said no one at the school covered up his actions. Former gymnastics coach Kathie Klages was found guilty of lying to investigators about allegations made against her in the 1990s, but the state appeals court overturned the conviction.
Former Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon was also accused of misleading investigators during a 2018 interview, but that case was dismissed before trial.
After viewing the records, Nessel said the university was wrong to claim attorney-client privilege over all the documents, even though a judge in 2019 had agreed with the school’s position.
The attorney general accused Michigan State University of giving victims a “sense of false hope” that the records would be revealing after they were eventually turned over. Nessel plans to make them public.
An email seeking comment from Michigan State was not immediately returned.
“Simply put, there is no satisfactory answer to the question of how this abuse could be perpetuated against so many people, for so long, without MSU, or anyone else, putting a stop to it,” Nessel said.
Michigan State University spokeswoman Emily Gerkin Guerrant said the university has taken significant steps to improve campus safety and culture since 2016.
The fallout from the Nassar saga has spread widely. In April, the U.S. Justice Department announced a $138 million settlement with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of mishandling allegations against the doctor in 2015 and 2016 — a critical time span that allowed Nassar to continue harassing victims before his arrest.
USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee have reached a $380 million settlement over alleged negligence.
An internal Justice Department watchdog recently said the FBI has failed to report some allegations of child sexual abuse to local police and social service agencies, even after its mishandling of complaints about Nassar led to changes.
