DOJ paying nearly $139 million to survivors of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse in settlement

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it will pay nearly $139 million to survivors of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse as part of a settlement stemming from the FBI's mishandling of the initial allegations.

USA TODAY Sports and The Wall Street Journal first reported last week that a settlement had been agreed upon and would stretch into nine figures. The Department of Justice specified in a news release that an amount of $138.7 million will be distributed to a group of 139 victims − working out to roughly $1 million per claimant, on average.

"These allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset," acting associate attorney general Benjamin Mizer said in a statement. "While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing."

Olympic champions Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman were among the more than 100 victims who filed claims with the Department of Justice in 2022, roughly a year after the release of a report by the department's inspector general. The report found that FBI officials in Indianapolis failed to respond to allegations of abuse they received involving Nassar "with the utmost seriousness and urgency" in 2015, a delay that allowed the abuse to continue.

Nassar, the former U.S. women's national gymnastics team doctor and Michigan State employee, was found to have sexually assaulted more than 500 women and girls under the guise of providing medical treatment. He is now serving what will amount to a lifetime prison sentence on sexual assault and child pornography charges.

The victims who filed administrative claims with the Justice Department are represented by a large, disparate group of attorneys. But four of those attorneys, who represent 77 of the 139 claimants, described the settlement in a statement Tuesday as "monumental."

"We are proud to have achieved a monumental settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, that not only secures the recovery the survivors deserve but also holds the DOJ and FBI accountable for their failures," Thomas Behm, Megan Bonanni, Mick Grewal and Michael Pitt said in a joint statement.

"We hope this serves as a lesson for federal law enforcement and they make the changes necessary to prevent anything like this from happening again."

Tuesday's settlement brings the combined liability payouts in legal cases brought by victims of Nassar's abuse to more than $1 billion. Michigan State agreed to distribute $500 million to survivors, while USA Gymnastics reached a separate settlement with them worth $380 million.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.