- Attorney General Dana Nessel announced has closed an investigation into documents related to Larry Nassar at Michigan State University with no further action from her office.
- The decision comes just less than six months after the documents were received from the university after a long fight for their release.
- Video shows thoughts from Attorney General Nessel, as well as a survivor.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
A lengthy investigation now closed. I'm your MSU Neighborhood Reporter Colin Jankowski. Wednesday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that her office's investigation into Michigan State's handling of the Larry Nassar case is now closed, with no further action taken from her office.
"I had no expectations about the report that was coming out, just as a way to protect myself," Danielle Moore said.
Danielle Moore is the Vice President of the Army of Survivors, a group that advocates for survivors in sports at all levels, and a survivor herself.
"So I wasn't surprised that there was nothing that came out of it," She said.
"The way they were so tenacious in withholding these particular documents, of course it would lead a normal person to think 'well, what is in those documents that they don't want us to see,'" Attorney General Dana Nessel said.
Attorney General Dana Nessel noted her office closed the case because of a lack of new information due in part to redactions to the documents and lack of access to other private communications from personal emails and text messages.
"Unfortunately, from the remaining documents, we have learned that not all of the communications were preserved," Nessel said. "And that the University wrongfully applied attorney-client privilege to many, if not most, of the remaining documents. My understanding is that Lou Anna K. Simon said herself that she had been deleting communications."
Vice President and University Spokesperson Emily Guerrant said in a statement "The university maintains that our interpretation and application of the attorney-client privilege was appropriate, as determined by East Lansing District Court Judge Richard Ball in 2019."
Danielle and Nessel agree that the delays in releasing the documents extended the process and stress for survivors.
"If these documents had been released sooner, because we now know that they didn't bring any light to the Nassar case, it would have saved the survivors six years of stress, and anxiety, and fighting for the documents to be released," Moore said.
Nessel says while this is not the outcome her office thought they would have, she emphasized the work survivors like Danielle have done to change the way these cases are dealt with in the future.
"I commend you all for your bravery in coming forward and sharing your stories, and for never giving up in the pursuit of justice and transparency," Nessel said. "And while the investigation is closed, this is not where this story ends."
Danielle says she hopes this leads to institutional and cultural changes at MSU, to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
"Moving forward there still needs to be a lot of work done at MSU," Moore said. "You know, enforcing proper communication, so things can be tracked and traced so we can figure out what went wrong and where so you can fix it."
We have submitted a FOIA request for the 6,000 documents reviewed by the Attorney General's office in the latest investigation, and the AG's office says they will make the documents available to the public in the future.
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