AG: Nassar investigation closes after Michigan State University declines to provide documents

Larry Nassar

The investigation into Larry Nassar is being closed after Michigan State University declined to turn over documents requested by the Attorney General's Office.

According to Attorney General Dana Nessel, her office asked the school to waive privilege to nearly 6,000 documents as officials investigated the former sports doctor.

Nassar worked for MSU and USA Gymnastics. He pleaded guilty to assaulting seven people in the Lansing area. He was sentenced to 40-175 years in prison in 2018.

Last month, Nessel said that a failure to release the documents would result in the investigation ending.

"When this Department set out more than three years ago on this investigation, the Trustees stated, ‘only a review by your office can resolve the questions in a way that the victims, their families, and the public will deem satisfactory and that will help all those affected by Nassar’s horrible crimes to heal.’ Yet, if the Board does not consent, my office will be forced to close its investigation without conclusion, and you will have shut the door on the pursuit of justice," Nessel said in February.

In a statement, Nessel said the refusal to share the documents closed the last door officials had to finish the investigation.

Read the full statement from Nessel below:

"We have used every legal mechanism available to us – including going to court - to secure the remaining documents needed for our investigation. The University’s refusal to voluntarily provide them closes the last door available to finish our investigation. We’re incredibly disappointed that our work will end this way, especially for the Survivors. We can only emphasize again that justice doesn’t begin and end at the courthouse doors. Principles of truth, fairness, and equity should be lights that guide all of our public institutions, especially our schools; and when our universities refuse to lead, they miss the most important way they can teach."