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topicnews · September 11, 2024

Nessel to announce results of investigation into MSU’s Nassar documents

Nessel to announce results of investigation into MSU’s Nassar documents

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel plans to hold a press conference Wednesday to announce the results of her office’s investigation into previously unreleased Michigan State University documents related to the Larry Nassar sex scandal.

The unpublished documents emerged in 2018 at the height of the scandal surrounding serial sex offender Larry Nassar during an investigation led by then-Attorney General Bill Schuette. They were given to Nessel earlier this year after survivors of the Nassar case had been lobbying for years for an investigation and the MSU board finally voted on it.

MSU turned over thousands more documents in 2018 that led to charges against three MSU officials, but officials said they would not release the documents due to attorney-client privilege, and a judge had ruled that the Documents do not need to be disclosed.

nettle took over the investigation when she was elected and repeatedly asked MSU to release the documents before closing the investigation in 2021. However, in the spring of 2023, she renewed her demand for the documents.

On December 15, the board voted unanimously to release the university documents. Then-Chair Rema Vassar apologized to survivors for the length of the vote, calling it a “historic day.” Current Vice-Chair Kelly Tebay expressed hope that this move, along with the hiring of President Kevin Guskiewicz, would “lead the community in a productive and positive direction in the new year.”

The number of withheld documents was widely reported as high as 6,000, and MSU Trustee Renee Knake Jefferson reported it was nearly 10,000 after a 2020 review. But MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant said 4,237 confidential documents were withheld entirely.

In 2018, Schuette’s special counsel, William Forsyth, suggested the full truth about the scandal would likely never come to light after leading an MSU-commissioned investigation into the university’s operations that allowed the sports doctor to abuse women and girls for decades.

After reviewing half a million documents provided by MSU and interviewing 500 witnesses, Forsyth released a report complaining about the university’s stonewalling and portraying MSU as indifferent to sexual assault because it put finances and its reputation above victims. The special counsel said MSU had “joined forces” in its refusal to cooperate, and that this included withholding documents from investigators under the guise of attorney-client privilege.

Nassar was sentenced to decades in prison in 2018 for attacking hundreds of women and girls, mostly athletes, and for possessing child pornography.

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