AG Nessel renews state's request for MSU to hand over thousands of Larry Nassar records

LANSING — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel renewed her call on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees to release some 6,000 documents related to the investigation of disgraced Dr. Larry Nassar.

Nessel sent a letter to the MSU Board of Trustees on Friday, according to a press release, calling on the board to release all remaining documents related to the investigation of Nassar, a former MSU doctor who sexually abused hundreds of girls and women under the guise of medical treatment.

The Board of Trustees, which next meets Friday, April 21, has refused Nessel’s request in the past to release the documents, citing attorney-client privilege. Nessel renewed her call Friday as board membership has changed this year with new members – including Trustees Dennis Denno and Sandy Pierce – and new leadership in Chairperson Rema Vassar, who was appointed to lead the board in January.

Nessel called on the board for the full and unredacted release of “the remaining documents our office requested and to fulfill its stated pledge to continue cooperating with the investigation through its conclusion,” according to the press release.

“We remain committed as ever to pursuing justice for the many survivors of Larry Nassar’s violence at the University, and I hope the newly comprised board shares that commitment with us more meaningfully than their predecessors,” Nessel said in the press release. “This is a pursuit we are determined to see through until the standards of investigation and justice are met.

"They haven’t been yet, not by the University that continues to withhold thousands of documents my department has requested over and again. So we have renewed our request, hopefully for the last time, so that we may secure justice, close this difficult chapter for the survivors, and finish this investigation confident in our review of exactly how and why the University failed to protect these students from Larry Nassar.”

The State Journal left messages for Vassar, Denno and Trustee Dianne Byrum on Friday.

In Nessel's letter, which was hyperlinked in the press release, she requested by April 28 “all documents sent to (former East Lansing District Court) Judge Richard Ball, complete and unredacted, to be used solely in the Attorney General’s investigation of the Nassar matter, along with any documents per the above requests that were missed in the University’s prior response.”

In 2019, Ball ruled the university appropriately maintained attorney-client privilege, Byrum, at the time MSU Board chairperson, later wrote in an email to the MSU community.

Nessel closed the MSU investigation in March 2021. This came after the Board of Trustees refused to release the documents for three years. Former AG Bill Schuette's office made the original request to MSU for those documents.

Nassar is serving an effective life sentence in prison on convictions of possessing child pornography and sexual assault of girls and women.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Nassar survivors received a $500 million legal settlement. With Nassar in prison and the legal settlement agreed to, survivors, the Attorney General and others want to learn more about how Nassar and his crimes were not stopped for two decades and they want to see if the unreleased documents have any answers.

Contact Mark Johnson at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: AG Nessel revives state's request for MSU to release Larry Nassar records