Attorneys representing Michigan State said they will not share details of their review of how the university has handled the case of sexual predator Larry Nassar because there is no written report of the law firm's investigation.
Bill Schuette, Michigan's attorney general, wrote to Michigan State earlier this week to request that it share information gathered by former U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald regarding Nassar's conduct while he was employed by Michigan State.
Schuette said the information was "crucial" to deciding whether any other individuals should be held responsible for allowing Nassar to sexually abuse young women for nearly two decades.
"There is no investigative report," Fitzgerald said in a written response to Schuette, which was released to reporters Friday afternoon. "The law firms were retained to represent MSU in its response to allegations related to Nassar's misconduct and to review the underlying facts and disclose any evidence that others knowingly assisted or concealed his criminal conduct. Had we found such conduct, we would have reported such evidence to law enforcement promptly."
Nassar pleaded guilty in November to 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He admitted to using his power as a renowned physician in the gymnastics community to sexually assault girls and young women who came to him seeking medical treatment.
Nassar was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in federal prison on separate charges of possessing child pornography and destroying evidence of those images.
More than 140 women have joined civil lawsuits that claim Michigan State is among the institutions that turned a blind eye to warnings about Nassar's misconduct. The lawsuits allege that girls or young women alerted coaches and other officials at the university multiple times that Nassar was inappropriately touching them. They say the people in a position to stop him told the girls that they were misunderstanding medical procedures and suggested they shouldn't talk to others about their concerns.
Schuette's request for more information from Michigan State on Monday is the first time the attorney general's office has publicly shown interest in investigating anyone other than Nassar. Last February, Schuette said his focus was strictly on Nassar when the former physician was charged with his state crimes.
A Michigan State spokesman said last month that the university's police department and the FBI conducted a joint investigation earlier this year to determine whether any university employee other than Nassar engaged in criminal conduct. The spokesman said Michigan State currently has no reason to believe any criminal conduct was found in that probe.
Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon told Schuette on Wednesday that she and the school intended to "cooperate fully" with the attorney general's office but directed his request for more information to Fitzgerald. The only other party that has investigated the potential culpability of those who allegedly enabled Nassar to date is Fitzgerald's law firm.
Fitzgerald said in his letter to Schuette that he has found no evidence that any Michigan State official believed Nassar committed sexual abuse prior to reports about his misconduct in the summer of 2016. Fitzgerald's firm has not contacted any of the women who have accused Michigan State of wrongdoing, according to their attorneys, while reviewing the case to see if the university had done anything wrong.
Fitzgerald said his firm would be willing to brief the attorney general's office in general terms on their review, but would not provide any information that might infringe on the attorney-client privilege between them and Michigan State. He claimed that the attorneys for the women suing Michigan State have attempted to force them to share information by trying their case in the press.
"It was and is important for MSU to maintain applicable privileges when facing litigation that, according to one plaintiffs' counsel, could cost MSU over $1 billion," Fitzgerald wrote. "We will not be goaded into doing otherwise by plaintiff's attorneys."
It's not clear at this point if Schuette and the attorney general's office intend to open a criminal investigation against anyone else in relation to Nassar's conduct.
On Friday, Gretchen Whitmer, a former state senator in Michigan who is running against Schuette for governor in 2018, called on the attorney general's office to open an independent investigation. Whitmer, who served as the acting county prosecutor in Ingham County when the warrants to search Nassar's home were issued in September 2016, said she met with some of Nassar's accusers Wednesday night before he was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
"Until the state police conduct an independent investigation on all of the state laws implicated," Whitmer said, "I don't believe any of the victims will have confidence that we have all of the facts, much less that the right action has been taken."
Ten of the women who say Nassar abused them spoke to reporters following his sentencing hearing Thursday. Jessica Smith, 22, said she didn't feel comforted by the fact that Nassar, 54, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
"I was expecting to feel a little bit of comfort after these sentences knowing that justice is being done," Smith said. "But we are not comforted. It's not comforting that one person is in jail while many people who enable what happened are sitting untouched, and [I] feel that they're laughing at us."