(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/11/2024) Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Wednesday she closed the investigation into convicted sex offender Larry Nassar and the Michigan State Board of Trustees. She then released to the press the documents she had pushed the school to release for years.
Nessel said MSU fought to keep more than 6,000 documents under wraps citing attorney-client privilege, but eventually turned them over in March and April. Those documents contained no new or relevant information to the investigation and offered no reason for withholding the documents, she said.
“Most of the privileged information was not even related to those issues, but instead to tangential issues such as public relations, insurance, and funding. Because our review revealed no new relevant information, we are closing this investigation,” Nessel said.
She said that there would be no answers for the victims about how Nassar was able to continue his abuse without oversight from the university.
“To say I am disappointed in this outcome is really an understatement,” she said.
She commended the survivors of the abuse and said the entire investigation would serve as a path and example of prosecuting sexual assault for decades to come.
Nessel said the 6,014 withheld documents that were reviewed by a retired judge were “improperly” withheld under attorney-client privilege.
“They weren’t required to give them to us in the first place, but we thought morally and ethically, they had an obligation to give them to us, but they were not illegally withheld. So there are no legal sanctions of any sort that we could possibly seek,” Nessel said.
She said MSU was the organization that had called for the office to investigate and then refused to turn over the documents that contained “embarrassing” information.
Nessel gave examples of the information, saying there were public relations strategies, preparations for a U.S. Senate hearing, responses to media and university donors, criticisms of the investigation, business emails sent from personal accounts, and criticisms of former Attorney General Bill Schuette and former Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon.
“It is our intent eventually, of course, to get all the documents that were reviewed during the course of this investigation online, but that will take some period of time, so we’re working on it right now,” she said.
In the meantime, she said the more than 6,000 documents that were withheld and eventually handed over would be released today to credentialed media without having to file a freedom of information act request and would be released to the public on request through the FOIA email.
MIRS has received the 6,014 documents and is reviewing them.
“Were these properly withheld or not? You can be the judge of that,” Nessel said.
Schuette said in a release that he planned to also review the documents and said it was time that everyone knew the truth about what happened at MSU.
He first opened the investigation into what the MSU Board of Trustees knew and when they knew it.
“The survivors have been denied justice by the MSU Board of Trustees’ refusal to let sunshine in and release all documents pertaining to Nassar,” Schuette said.
He said the constant blocking of documents from the board caused more anxiety from the survivors and caused them to wonder what was still left to drop.
“The continued revictimization of the survivors due to long-standing delay tactics is wholly unfair and simply wrong. My sincere hope is that through the release of these documents, the survivors and their families will be able to continue the process of healing,” Schuette said.
