Former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny declined to answer questions about his or the organization’s handling of the Larry Nassar scandal during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Testifying before the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security, Penny declined to give a statement and invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions so as not to incriminate himself.
After Penny declined to answer around five questions, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the chair of the committee, asked Penny if he would decline to answer all questions. Penny said yes, and Moran excused him from the hearing.
In a statement released after Penny was excused, his attorney, Robert J. Bittman, said Penny “declined to testify before the subcommittee while the matters that attempt to wrongly shift blame for Nassar’s crimes remain open.”
The Senate Commerce Committee subpoenaed Penny, who was making his first public appearance since he resigned under pressure from the U.S. Olympic Committee in March 2017. Senate officials had hoped to learn more of USA Gymnastics’ handling of the Nassar case.
Penny is named as a defendant in federal lawsuits filed by Olympic champions Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman, as well as in California state court by former gymnasts Mattie Larson and Jeannette Antolin.
The subcommittee previously planned to hold a hearing on May 22 but postponed it after some who were invited did not agree to testify, a person with knowledge of the situation but who was not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY Sports.
Former Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon noted to the committee that she had been willing to testify on that date but that Tuesday’s date presented a conflict for her and her attorney.
Former USA Gymnastics women’s program director Rhonda Faehn also appeared before the committee, and her written testiomony included emails from the summer of 2015 when USA Gymnastics learned of athlete concerns about Nassar’s treatment.
Faehn first learned of athlete concerns from Sarah Jantzi, the personal coach for Maggie Nichols, on June 17, 2015.
In a statement included in Faehn’s testimony, Jantzi said she spoke with Penny on that day and asked if she needed to report the concerns to authorities.
“He reassured me that no he would handle it,” Jantzi wrote. “This was already being investigated and he would take it from here.”
Although USA Gymnastics maintained for months that it it “immediately” reported the concerns about Nassar to the FBI, it revealed in February 2017 that it waited five weeks while it hired a private consultant to conduct an investigation.
USA Gymnastics told the FBI about Nassar in late July 2015. The organization did not notify Michigan State, where Nassar was a physician, nor make public the reason for his departure. USA Gymnastics said it was instructed not to by the FBI.
But on July 21 – nearly a week before USA Gymnastics reported to the FBI – Penny emailed eight members of the board or executive staff instructing them “not to have any conversations with anyone concerning this issue until further notice.”
The FBI waited approximately nine months to launch an investigation after receiving the complaint, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
Concerns about the slow pace of the investigation led Penny and Paul Parilla, then the chairman of USA Gymnastics’ board, to contact FBI officials in Los Angeles in May 2016, the New York Times reported.
Last month, FBI director Christopher Wray told a Senate subcommittee that the agency is conducting a review of its response to allegations made in 2015 and 2016.
The Senate’s investigation is one of several that come as the Nassar scandal has engulfed USA Gymnastics and Michigan State for nearly two years.
The Indianapolis Star, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, first made public the allegations against Nassar in August 2016 after being contacted by Rachael Denhollander, who said she’d been abused by Nassar.
Olympic champions Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Raisman and Wieber are among more than 300 women and girls who have said Nassar abused them under the guise of medical treatment.
Nassar, 54, is serving a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography charges. He was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault in Michigan and faces a minimum of 40 years in prison after his federal sentence is over.
Simon resigned in January hours after Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in Ingham County, Mich. During that sentencing hearing, 156 women and girls who said Nassar assaulted them gave victim impact statements.
Faehn was ousted by new USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry last month. In her opening statement, Faehn said she had “received no warning and no explanation for my firing.”
It was the fifth Congressional hearing in the past 15 months regarding sexual abuse in Olympic sports.
Last month, current leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S. Center for SafeSport and the national governing bodies for gymnastics, swimming, taekwondo and volleyball testified before a House subcommittee. The hearing was the first time Perry, who replaced Penny, had commented publicly since starting with USA Gymnastics in December.
During that hearing, Perry focused on USA Gymnastics’ efforts going forward and said she could not answer questions about how the organization handled complaints against Nassar and abusive coaches. A day later, The Indianapolis Star reported that USA Gymnastics had agreed to provide “false excuses” for Nassar’s absence at events. At least one of the officials involved in those discussions, chief operating officer Ron Galimore, is still employed by USA Gymnastics.
USA Gymnastics has acknowledged it is in mediation with victims suing the organization. Michigan State last month agreed to a $500 million settlement with approximately 300 victims.
