The 13 administrative tort claims, filed on April 21, are similar. In one obtained by E! News, it is alleged that one of the victims suffered “significant and irreparable personal injury at the hands of Nassar following the FBI Indianapolis Field Office’s lackluster investigation and failure to follow strict protocol and procedures outlined by the DOJ [Department of Justice].”
The claim states, “If not for the employees of the FBI’s negligence, gross negligence, wrongful acts, and omissions, [the victim] would have been spared from continued physical trauma and abuse, subsequent mental anguish, and emotional trauma.”
The FBI now has six months to respond to the claims. If the agency does not reach a settlement within that span of time, the victims will have the ability to file suit in civil court.
E! News has reached out to the FBI for comment but hasn’t heard back yet.
This isn’t the first time the FBI has been taken to task for its handling of the case. Last July, a 119-page Justice Department report criticized the bureau’s investigation into the allegations against Nassar, stating that the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis “failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies.”