(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A federal appeals court has upheld the firing of former FBI agent Michael Langeman, who was found to have mishandled the investigation into sex abuse allegations against USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
Langeman had sued the FBI in late 2021, after Deputy Director Paul Abbate fired him over his handling of the Nassar investigation.
According to an Inspector General report, Langeman and two other FBI agents first met with USA Gymnastics officials in 2015 after receiving complaints that Nassar had sexually abused multiple gymnasts.
Following that meeting, the agents allegedly conducted only limited follow-up, mishandled evidence and failed to open a formal investigation of the matter—allowing Nassar to continue working as a respected sports doctor in Michigan for more than a year until his eventual arrest in 2016.
After Michigan state prosecutors charged Nassar in 2016, observers began questioning why the federal government didn’t act sooner.
The Justice Department’s Inspector General launched an investigation, and found in 2021 that “Langeman mishandled evidence and failed to refer allegations through the proper channels, which delayed the investigation by over a year and led to the abuse of seventy or more athletes during the delay.”
Langeman was also found to have made false statements to the IG during his office’s investigation.
A few months after his August 2021 termination, Langeman sued the DOJ, alleging that he was deprived of his Fifth Amendment right to both a property interest in continued employment and a liberty interest in his reputation. He also argued that such stigma to his reputation hampered future employment.
A district court dismissed Langeman’s lawsuit, and an appeals court upheld that decision on Tuesday.
“Langeman may very well be excluded from working with the FBI again, but it does not necessarily follow that he would be unable to find employment with any other federal agency indefinitely; nor is any such exclusion or explicit prohibition present in his dismissal letter,” the appeals decision said.
“Finally, Langeman does not allege that he attempted to obtain employment elsewhere and was rejected because of Appellees’ alleged conduct. Therefore, Langeman fails to articulate allegations that sufficiently support a stigma claim.”
Meanwhile, the FBI faces a lawsuit from Nassar’s victims over its failure to act.
Nassar, for his part, is set to serve the rest of his life in prison. He was stabbed by a fellow inmate at a federal penitentiary in Florida in July.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
