Michigan’s attorney general closed its investigation into how much Michigan State University knew about child-rapist Larry Nassar’s behavior after a release of over 6,000 related documents yielded no new information — but lambasted the school for withholding them for so long.
“Our review of those documents … has left us wondering why that step was not taken several years ago, and has provided us with no new basis on which to continue our investigation,” Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said in a summary obtained by obtained by the Detroit News.
“Because our review revealed no new, relevant, information, we must close this investigation.”
After Nassar — a longtime sports doctor for Michigan State (MSU) and USA Gymnastics — was first publicly accused of sexually assaulting scores of underage gymnasts in 2016, the school insisted nobody was aware of the decades-long pattern of abuse.
Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to between 40 and 175 years in prison. The same year, Michigan’s attorney general opened an investigation into the school’s handling of the scandal — but despite handing over more than 100,000 documents, the school withheld an additional 6,000 for roughly five years by citing client-attorney privilege.
MSU fought their release for so long that the investigation was first closed in 2021, but when new university leadership took over in 2023, the files were finally released and the case was reopened.
After completing the review of the withheld documents, Nessel’s office concluded they revealed nothing new — and said their team was baffled as to why the school fought so hard to hide them.
“This review does not give us reason to revise our prior statements that MSU ‘circled the wagons’ and ‘stonewalled’ when it came to providing us with the promised full cooperation in our investigation,” Nessel’s office said in its summary of its findings.
“To the contrary, this review has provided additional support for those statements and created a sense of bewilderment as to why MSU withheld these documents for so long,” the AG continued, adding that the school’s resistance delayed closure for victims by years.
Nessel’s office also concluded that the school’s claim of client-attorney privilege was unjustified and that the prolonged withholding gave victims a “false sense of hope” that the documents would hold answers.
“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,” Nessel said 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,” she added,
Just three MSU officials have been charged over the Nassar case — and two had the charges dropped.
MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine former dean William Strampel served a short prison sentence after being convicted for willful neglect of duty in his supervision of Nassar.
The university’s former president, Lou Anna Simon was charged with lying to police, but the charge was dismissed. Women’s gymnastics coach Kathie Klages was convicted of lying to police, but the conviction was dropped.
Nassar’s abuses stretch back to the 1990s and reached hundreds of victims, including renowned Olympic gymnasts like Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.
If you have been sexually assaulted and live in New York, you can call 1-800-942-6906 for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the state, you can dial the 24/7 National Sexual Assault hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
