The report by the IG also noted that 50% of all child sex cases during that time were never referred to local law enforcement and of the other 50%, only 43% were referred within 24 hours, which is required by FBI regulations.
An attorney for the victims of Larry Nassar, the former US Olympic Gymnastics doctor who was sentenced to life in prison for abusing dozens of gymnasts, said that the report showed that the “FBI is simply not doing its job when it comes to protecting our children from the monsters among us who stalk them… it is now clear that the Larry Nassar scandal could happen again today.”
Former FBI special agent Jane Turner, who worked for the Bureau for 25 years and led the FBI’s programs combating crimes against women and child sex victims said that the FBI doesn’t focus on child sex crimes because agents feel it is beneath them and that they prefer to focus on headline-grabbing cases like terrorism or January 6.
Turner was the resident RA in a Native American reservation, which the FBI has jurisdiction over. She said even then, agents would close sex cases as car accidents or other events to avoid working on them.
“Of course, I told the bureau the agents did not want to work these cases. They felt it was beneath them. They felt it was a waste of their time. They felt it was women’s work,” Turner told Sputnik’s Political Misfits, to the shock of co-hosts John Kiriakou and Michelle Witte.
The FBI retaliated against Turner after she blew the whistle on the agency’s lack of action on those crimes. She eventually won the largest compensatory package legally possible for federal agents.
“They’ve (the FBI) never considered these kinds of crimes worthy of their investigative abilities. I mean, that’s the bottom line,” Turner added later, noting that solving sex crimes is not the type of work that nets agents awards.
“It’s been a situation that has been happening over and over and over again. And if that doesn’t tell you that there’s something wrong with that system, nothing does,” Turner continued. “Twenty-five years ago, we wrote up… this 30-page massive thing pointing out the FBI’s derelictions and, of course, nothing, crickets. And then you have Larry Nassar and then you have today. I mean, it’s just a continuing problem.”
Kiriakou, himself a veteran of the CIA who blew the whistle on the United States’ torture techniques during the so-called War on Terror noted that he recently had a conversation with an FBI agent who said they weren’t interested in cases that didn’t focus on a few subjects that the Bureau prefers. “Unless a walk-in, a call-in, a volunteer has information about Russia, China, terrorism, or January 6, they’re just not interested. They don’t have the manpower.”
Responding to the IG’s report, an FBI spokesperson claimed that many of the cases that were cited as not being followed up on actually were, but the agents just didn’t have time to fill out the proper paperwork. Turner said that excuse is unbelievable.
“That’s what the FBI lived and died on, their FD-302s, which are… write-ups of any evidence you have. And you have that five-day period to get it done. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. And that’s one of the things that comes up in court, ‘When did you write this report?’ So, that’s a very duplicitous to say, ‘Oh, we didn’t have time to write it down,’” Turner continued. “I’m just blown away by that. Blown away.”
While US Senator Dick Durbin (D-Il) said he is going to hold a hearing on the issue, neither Kiriakou nor Turner believes it is going to lead to any substantial changes.
“Nothing ever comes out of [these kinds of hearings]... let’s be real blunt here. As you guys know, they (lawmakers) are scared to death of the FBI,” Turner contended. “‘Don’t train your lens on me.’ That’s what their concern is. When you raise an issue, is the FBI going to be looking at them?”