October 11, 2021 • 8 mins
Recently, some elite American gymnasts gave some heartbreaking testimony about the FBI's mishandling of their allegations against Larry Nassar. Anney and Samantha give an update on what's going on.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I've never told your production of iHeart Radio Quick Trigger Awarding.
Before we get into this episode, we are going to
be talking about issues of sexual assault and abuse. So
(00:25):
if that's not something that you're in a good place
for today, then let skip this one, come back to
it later. All good. Also, want to put the date
on this one because we are talking about an ongoing situation.
Today is October five one, so we wanted to do
a quick update on what's been going on with the
(00:45):
USA gymnastics and the female gymnast speaking out about the
FBI and how the FBI has handled the allegations that
these women made against Team USA. Dr Larry Nasser so
in NASA was charged with sexual abuse and child pornography
is now serving decades in prison. Some advocates believe he
(01:06):
may have abused up to one hundred and twenty athletes
during his time as doctor right so. In September of
one this year, four of Team USA's top gymnast, Maggie Nichols, MICHAELA. Moroney,
Ali Reisman, and Simone Biles testified to the Senate Judiciary
Committee about how the FBI really dropped the ball on
(01:27):
how they went about the investigation because there was very
little and it was really emotional. In heartbreaking testimony, Simone
Biles said she blamed Nasser and quote an entire system
that allowed his abuse and that the scars of this
horrific abuse continues. And Biles testified saying that the impact
of this man's abuse will never be over and I
(01:50):
think that could be said for a lot of victims
of sexual abuse when we know this to be true. Yeah, yeah,
for sure. And Maroney labeled Nasser as more of a
pedophile than a doctor and described recounting the abuse she'd
gone through a while with Team USA on the phone
with the FBI, and she said she gave them clear
details about the instances of abuse and molestation, including incidents
(02:13):
that happened right before the twenty twelve London Olympics. Um quote,
I cried and there was just silence after that, she
says the FBI falsified her statement. She argued that the
agents involved should be indicted and angrily pointed out that
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco did not even appear at
the meeting, saying, I am tired of waiting for people
(02:33):
to do the right thing, and Ali Risman echoed the sentiments,
saying that the FBI treated her and other dimness like adversaries,
that they've been a victim shamed over and over, that
they made her feel like the abuse didn't count, that
it wasn't that bad, that it took quote years of
therapy to realize my abuse was bad. That it does matter,
(02:54):
going on to say all we needed was for one
adult to do the right thing. Um and FBI Director
Christopher Ray said that the mistakes made in this case
should never have happened and that he was deeply sorry
that so many repeatedly let down these women. The Senate
Judiciary Chairman Richard Durbin said in the fifteen month period
(03:15):
that the FBI officials assured their responsibility, NASA abused at
least seventy young athletes. For many of them, this was
a continuation, but for others, they were abused for the
first time while the FBI sat on the case. So far,
the FBI has impressoned charges. Special Agent Michael Langman was
fired in the weeks leading up to his hearing, and
his supervisor, Jay Abbott had earlier resigned. But that's where
(03:38):
we are now there's been a lot of like angry statements,
but not so much actions throughout I can see, and
that there was at one point the conversation that the
Bolence Against Women Act had been pretty much taken down,
pretty much rescinded by the previous administration when the investigation
was happening. Some of the arguments for the FBI, which no,
(04:03):
this does not you know, like it's not giving them
any excuses, but what they're saying is under that being
resented that they did not have actual any law in
order to proceed as a federal case. So what we
talked about, if you look at some of the charges,
they are directly linked to specific states instead of doing
federal level. Because of that and because of those statutes
(04:27):
being limited, it really really hurt the investigation. And of
course that could be a cause as to why this
act is so important um and the Biden administration has
brought it back. I don't know if it is fully
functioning as the entirety of the Act was intended to
begin with, but it has come back since the last administration.
(04:47):
But that has cost a lot of conversation about why
these things are not a part of the judicial process. Anyways,
in any way, why a law enforcement would allow this
kind of gray area when obviously there's a lot of
victims and victimization that's been happening. But yeah, we don't
call him a predator. So the actual charges from what
(05:09):
I remember, is because of the porn and not necessarily
actually because of the abuse, which is another just disgusting
back to this case. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot
of very heartbreaking things about all of this, and it
is a reminder of why laws like that matter and
why we need to keep an eye on them. And
it just makes me so angry as someone as we
(05:31):
talked about, I was a young girl who wanted to
be a gymnast, and I was like love watching gymnastics,
that this was happening for so long, and that people
were speaking up about it and it was not being
treated with the urgency it deserved, or even outright dismissed
or even flipped that they weren't being abused at all
or it didn't matter, and then expecting them to perform
(05:54):
and like these high stakes athletics as if nothing is wrong,
like forget all of that, just shut up and go
do your gymnastics, like that's it. Makes me so angry, right,
and these young women who are supposed to be protected,
if they are truly representative of this country, they should
be one of the people who are actually protected, and
(06:14):
they weren't, and they're not um. And that's kind of
that conversation is even after the fact, even after so
many of these women have left that specific competition field,
they're still not being represented in any least way, They're
still not getting any type of justice, They're still not
being listened to. It's just such a heartbreaking situation all around.
And then that kind of comes back to the fact,
(06:37):
you know, it speaks to other victims. If these women
who are famous, who are again supposed to be protected
and guarded, are not getting any justice, are not being believed,
and are being dismissed, why would they listen to me
an individual who is not a part of that world
in any least way, or who may not quote unquote
in their minds matter because they're not representing the U
(06:57):
S and Olympics. You know, it's kind of like, how
do it's normal person get any justice if they can't, Right,
It's a it's an awful dangerous message to send, and
it is I think very telling that it is representative
of the U S and like clearly a systemic problem
that we have and it's playing out on the stage
(07:21):
and it's just so infuriating. But I mean, it's it's
it's very I wish it wasn't the case and it
didn't have to be. But do you know the strength
of these women for speaking out and for continuing to say, like, no,
this was mishandled and we deserve justice and you need
to know what happened, does and fix it so it
(07:42):
doesn't happen to other people. That is inspiring and even
though it does break my heart that it is having
happened at all, But yeah, we're going to continue to
keep an eye on this and see see what happens
there in the meantime. Listeners, as always that we would
love to hear from you. If you would like to
email us our emails Stuff Media Mom Stuff at iHeart
media dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
(08:03):
mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and Stuff I've Never
Told You. Thanks. It's always to our super producer Christina,
thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff Will
Never Told use prediction of iHeart Radio from More Podcast
on iHeart Radio, visit the Ihear Radio app Apple podcast,
or if you listen to your favorite ships,
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I've never told your production of iHeart Radio Quick Trigger Awarding.
Before we get into this episode, we are going to
be talking about issues of sexual assault and abuse. So
(00:25):
if that's not something that you're in a good place
for today, then let skip this one, come back to
it later. All good. Also, want to put the date
on this one because we are talking about an ongoing situation.
Today is October five one, so we wanted to do
a quick update on what's been going on with the
(00:45):
USA gymnastics and the female gymnast speaking out about the
FBI and how the FBI has handled the allegations that
these women made against Team USA. Dr Larry Nasser so
in NASA was charged with sexual abuse and child pornography
is now serving decades in prison. Some advocates believe he
(01:06):
may have abused up to one hundred and twenty athletes
during his time as doctor right so. In September of
one this year, four of Team USA's top gymnast, Maggie Nichols, MICHAELA. Moroney,
Ali Reisman, and Simone Biles testified to the Senate Judiciary
Committee about how the FBI really dropped the ball on
(01:27):
how they went about the investigation because there was very
little and it was really emotional. In heartbreaking testimony, Simone
Biles said she blamed Nasser and quote an entire system
that allowed his abuse and that the scars of this
horrific abuse continues. And Biles testified saying that the impact
of this man's abuse will never be over and I
(01:50):
think that could be said for a lot of victims
of sexual abuse when we know this to be true. Yeah, yeah,
for sure. And Maroney labeled Nasser as more of a
pedophile than a doctor and described recounting the abuse she'd
gone through a while with Team USA on the phone
with the FBI, and she said she gave them clear
details about the instances of abuse and molestation, including incidents
(02:13):
that happened right before the twenty twelve London Olympics. Um quote,
I cried and there was just silence after that, she
says the FBI falsified her statement. She argued that the
agents involved should be indicted and angrily pointed out that
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco did not even appear at
the meeting, saying, I am tired of waiting for people
(02:33):
to do the right thing, and Ali Risman echoed the sentiments,
saying that the FBI treated her and other dimness like adversaries,
that they've been a victim shamed over and over, that
they made her feel like the abuse didn't count, that
it wasn't that bad, that it took quote years of
therapy to realize my abuse was bad. That it does matter,
(02:54):
going on to say all we needed was for one
adult to do the right thing. Um and FBI Director
Christopher Ray said that the mistakes made in this case
should never have happened and that he was deeply sorry
that so many repeatedly let down these women. The Senate
Judiciary Chairman Richard Durbin said in the fifteen month period
(03:15):
that the FBI officials assured their responsibility, NASA abused at
least seventy young athletes. For many of them, this was
a continuation, but for others, they were abused for the
first time while the FBI sat on the case. So far,
the FBI has impressoned charges. Special Agent Michael Langman was
fired in the weeks leading up to his hearing, and
his supervisor, Jay Abbott had earlier resigned. But that's where
(03:38):
we are now there's been a lot of like angry statements,
but not so much actions throughout I can see, and
that there was at one point the conversation that the
Bolence Against Women Act had been pretty much taken down,
pretty much rescinded by the previous administration when the investigation
was happening. Some of the arguments for the FBI, which no,
(04:03):
this does not you know, like it's not giving them
any excuses, but what they're saying is under that being
resented that they did not have actual any law in
order to proceed as a federal case. So what we
talked about, if you look at some of the charges,
they are directly linked to specific states instead of doing
federal level. Because of that and because of those statutes
(04:27):
being limited, it really really hurt the investigation. And of
course that could be a cause as to why this
act is so important um and the Biden administration has
brought it back. I don't know if it is fully
functioning as the entirety of the Act was intended to
begin with, but it has come back since the last administration.
(04:47):
But that has cost a lot of conversation about why
these things are not a part of the judicial process. Anyways,
in any way, why a law enforcement would allow this
kind of gray area when obviously there's a lot of
victims and victimization that's been happening. But yeah, we don't
call him a predator. So the actual charges from what
(05:09):
I remember, is because of the porn and not necessarily
actually because of the abuse, which is another just disgusting
back to this case. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot
of very heartbreaking things about all of this, and it
is a reminder of why laws like that matter and
why we need to keep an eye on them. And
it just makes me so angry as someone as we
(05:31):
talked about, I was a young girl who wanted to
be a gymnast, and I was like love watching gymnastics,
that this was happening for so long, and that people
were speaking up about it and it was not being
treated with the urgency it deserved, or even outright dismissed
or even flipped that they weren't being abused at all
or it didn't matter, and then expecting them to perform
(05:54):
and like these high stakes athletics as if nothing is wrong,
like forget all of that, just shut up and go
do your gymnastics, like that's it. Makes me so angry, right,
and these young women who are supposed to be protected,
if they are truly representative of this country, they should
be one of the people who are actually protected, and
(06:14):
they weren't, and they're not um. And that's kind of
that conversation is even after the fact, even after so
many of these women have left that specific competition field,
they're still not being represented in any least way, They're
still not getting any type of justice, They're still not
being listened to. It's just such a heartbreaking situation all around.
And then that kind of comes back to the fact,
(06:37):
you know, it speaks to other victims. If these women
who are famous, who are again supposed to be protected
and guarded, are not getting any justice, are not being believed,
and are being dismissed, why would they listen to me
an individual who is not a part of that world
in any least way, or who may not quote unquote
in their minds matter because they're not representing the U
(06:57):
S and Olympics. You know, it's kind of like, how
do it's normal person get any justice if they can't, Right,
It's a it's an awful dangerous message to send, and
it is I think very telling that it is representative
of the U S and like clearly a systemic problem
that we have and it's playing out on the stage
(07:21):
and it's just so infuriating. But I mean, it's it's
it's very I wish it wasn't the case and it
didn't have to be. But do you know the strength
of these women for speaking out and for continuing to say, like, no,
this was mishandled and we deserve justice and you need
to know what happened, does and fix it so it
(07:42):
doesn't happen to other people. That is inspiring and even
though it does break my heart that it is having
happened at all, But yeah, we're going to continue to
keep an eye on this and see see what happens
there in the meantime. Listeners, as always that we would
love to hear from you. If you would like to
email us our emails Stuff Media Mom Stuff at iHeart
media dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
(08:03):
mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and Stuff I've Never
Told You. Thanks. It's always to our super producer Christina,
thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff Will
Never Told use prediction of iHeart Radio from More Podcast
on iHeart Radio, visit the Ihear Radio app Apple podcast,
or if you listen to your favorite ships,
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
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