The legal team conducting a review of the Larry Nassar scandal for Michigan State University says it has no report of findings to turn over to Attorney General Bill Schuette. Schuette sent a letter to MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon on Monday asking for the findings of the review being led by former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Friday his office released the response from Simon and Fitzgerald.
Simon's letter to the Attorney General says MSU will cooperate fully with any law-enforcement investigation. Fitzgerald's response is more detailed. He says his team "believes the evidence will show that no MSU official believed Nassar committed sexual abuse prior to newspaper reports in late summer 2016." He says MSU will notify law enforcement if that turns out not to be true.
Fitzgerald also says MSU will maintain attorney-client privilege given the fact that the University is a defendant in a lawsuit that could result in a large financial judgment. Fitzgerald says law firm was hired to "represent MSU in its response to allegations related to Nassar's misconduct and to review the underlying facts and disclose any evidence that others knowingly assisted or concealed his criminal conduct."
Therefore, he says, there is no investigative report to release to Schuette, police or the plaintiffs' lawyers. Fitzgerald says MSU will cooperate with law-enforcement investigations and will brief Schuette at his convenience.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges Thursday. That sentence won't begin until he has finished serving time on sexual-assault charges in Michigan. He will be sentenced in Ingham and Eaton Counties next month.
He faces up to 40 years at each hearing. Given that he is 54 years old this amounts to a life sentence. Nassar, MSU, USA Gymnastics and Twistars are among the defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by more than 140 women Nassar molested.
