i am grateful to the woman who came forward today. there is no more important work in law enforcement than helping victims of abuse. it is essential that we do everything we can to ensure that victims continue to come forward with confidence that their reports are going to be thoroughly and aggressively investigated. a big part of that is accountability and holding our folks to the highest standard our work requires. when i received inspector general s report and saw that a supervisors agent in indianapolis had failed to carry out even the most basic parts of the job, i immediately made sure he was no longer performing the functions of a special agent. i can now tell you that that individual no longer works for the fbi in any capacity. as for the former indianapolis
facts. senator, i m not aware of discussions about referring to state and local authorities. director wray, how far did knowledge of the nassar investigation extend within the fbi headquarters in 2015? my understanding of the most senior individual involved, based on looking at the thorough and independent investigation of inspector general horowitz was that the most senior individual with knowledge and responsibility was the special agent in charge in indianapolis, mr. abbott. but again, i would defer to inspector general horowitz on that. was the director aware of the nassar matter at any time in or before calendar year 2016? i don t know the answer to that, sir. maybe inspector horowitz does. prior to 2017, did the fbi
have interviews done by or at least heavily involving these child adolescent forensic interviewers. that s why we have that program. that s why the policy has been strengthened, to require them. that s why we ve discouraged as much as possible, telephonetic interviews in these kinds of cases. one of the other helpful points that came out of inspector general horowitz report is the clarification that that should also take into account women who are adults at the time of the interview, but who were victimized when they were minors. because that is its own kind of unique sepb sensitivity. we re trying to avoid the heart breaking insensitivity that you just eluded to. supervisor a special agent in indianapolis, michael linesman, has now been fired.
as for the former indianapolis special agent in charge, the descriptions of his behavior also reflect violations of the fbi s longstanding code of conduct and the ethical obligations for all fbi employees, especially senior officials. now that individual has been gone from the bureau for about 3 1/2 years, having retired in january of 2018 before any review launched. i will say, i will say it is extremely frustrating that we are left with little disciplinary recourse when people retire before their cases can be adjudicated. but let me be clear. people who engaged in that kind of gross misconduct have no place in the fbi. i can also assure you that the fbi s response is not limited to dealing with those who failed so profoundly back in 2015. to make sure that something like