FBI Audit Discovers Numerous Failures in Reporting and Investigating Child Sexual Abuse Tips, Report Reveals – One America News Network
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
1:32 PM – Thursday, August 29, 2024
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog completed an FBI audit showcasing the agency’s failures within investigating child sex abuse cases, just three years following the infamous mishandling of the Larry Nassar case.
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“The FBI’s efforts combating crimes against children are among the most critical and demanding undertakings we do,” the FBI stated. “We are committed to maintaining the public’s trust by implementing the necessary improvement to ensure the important changes we made to our Violent Crimes Against Children program in 2018 and 2019 have the intended effect of promoting the highest level of compliance and effectiveness.”
The bureau has instituted new rules regarding child sex abuse cases after the colossal failure to act against USA team doctor Larry Nassar, despite a number of credible claims regarding how gymnasts were sexually assaulted while under his care.
“The FBI’s failures enabling Larry Nassar’s abuse of young victims continue to remain a stain on the Bureau,” stated Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin. “Today’s report shows that the new policies implemented by the FBI to address these egregious failures are effectively being ignored, leading to similar abuses as seen in the Nassar investigation. It’s shameful that the FBI is continuing to fail victims.”
The new audit illuminated that in nearly half of the cases, the FBI failed to comply with mandatory reporting requirements to alert local or state authorities.
In one of the cases, the FBI received a tip regarding a registered sex offender who was actively sexually abusing a child. The agency failed to take “appropriate investigative action” for at least a whole year and had not reported the information to the appropriate authority channels.
“During this period, the subject allegedly victimized at least one additional minor for a period of approximately 15 months,” the report added.
“After we raised this incident to the FBI’s attention, the FBI took appropriate action, and the subject was indicted on federal charges,” stated Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Additionally, the report identified “staffing issues and high caseloads” as a significant factor plaguing the bureau from being able to investigate on time.
“Any mistake or deficiency is unacceptable and the FBI recognizes that,” an FBI official stated.
The audit provided suggestions on how to improve its handling of child sexual abuse cases, which included adding additional oversight into ensuring compliance of mandatory reporting.
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