Michigan AG Closes Probe Into MSU’s Handling of Larry Nassar Scandal

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced this week that the state was closing the investigation into Michigan State University’s (MSU’s) handling of the Larry Nassar scandal.
Nassar, former sports physician for the university and USA Gymnastics who worked with Olympians, is serving a decades-long prison sentence for sexual assaults he carried out under the guise of medical treatment, along with other crimes. In 2018, MSU reached a $500 million settlement with hundreds of survivors, mostly women, who accused him of abusing them.
“In 2018, former Attorney General Bill Schuette formally announced an independent investigation into the University’s handling of the Larry Nassar matter. The investigation was requested by the MSU Board of Trustees, who promised full cooperation. The University then turned over more than 105,000 documents for review but held back over 6,000 documents under a claim of attorney-client privilege,” Nessel’s office said in a news release. “The 6,014 new documents were provided to the department in March and April of this year.”
The statement added that Nessel’s office did not uncover any new information following a review of the recently received documents.
For years, Nessel and her predecessor were at odds with MSU’s legal team and governing board over the release of the key documents.
Since the Nassar scandal emerged in 2016, MSU has consistently maintained that no one at the school concealed his abuse. Former gymnastics coach Kathie Klages was convicted of lying to investigators about reports she received in the 1990s, but her conviction was later overturned by the state appeals court.
After reviewing the withheld documents, Nessel criticized the university, accusing it of wrongly invoking attorney-client privilege to block the release. This stance had been supported by a judge in 2019, who initially sided with the university.
“It was surprising to me that we did not find anything that was incriminating,” Nessel said during a news conference on Wednesday. “It seems sort of improbable to us, right?”
“This is a major university, obviously extensive number of employees that work there. I guess the expectation is that we would find a little bit more than we did,” Nessel said. “Simply put, there remains no fulfilling answer to the question of how this abuse was able to be perpetuated on so many, for so long, without MSU, or anyone else, putting a stop to it.”
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.