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Democratic senator sticks up for Nassar survivor at contentious hearing

"I believe Kaylee Lorincz."

Kaylee Lorincz reacts as former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar listens to impact statements during the sentencing phase in Ingham County Circuit Court on January 24, 2018 in Lansing, Michigan.
More than 100 women and girls accuse Nassar of a pattern of serial abuse dating back two decades, including the Olympic gold-medal winners Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney -- who have lashed out at top sporting officials for failing to stop him.    / AFP PHOTO / JEFF KOWALSKY        (Photo credit should read JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images)
Kaylee Lorincz reacts as former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar listens to impact statements during the sentencing phase in Ingham County Circuit Court on January 24, 2018 in Lansing, Michigan. More than 100 women and girls accuse Nassar of a pattern of serial abuse dating back two decades, including the Olympic gold-medal winners Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney -- who have lashed out at top sporting officials for failing to stop him. / AFP PHOTO / JEFF KOWALSKY (Photo credit should read JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Late Tuesday afternoon, 19-year-old Kaylee Lorincz sat in the second row in a hearing room at the Hart Senate Building in the nation’s capitol, mere feet away from John Engler, the interim president at Michigan State University.

She listened as Engler called her a liar, 12 times, under oath, in front of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security hearing, “Strengthening and Empowering U.S. Amateur Athletes: Moving Forward with Solutions.”

Over and over again, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) relentlessly questioned him, Engler said that Lorincz’s account of a private meeting between them — one in which she says he offered her $250,000 in exchange for her silence on MSU’s mishandling of serial predator Larry Nassar — was false.

Lorincz came into Tuesday’s hearing expecting Engler to lie to the senators; to her mind, it’s in line with the character he has shown since taking over as interim president at Michigan State in February. Nevertheless, she found it difficult to witness.

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“I had to sit here and be called a liar, and it makes me go through my head, well, who else thinks I’m a liar? What if everyone else thinks I’m a liar?” Lorincz told ThinkProgress after the hearing.

But then, Blumenthal was able to take away those seeds of self-doubt and fear that were penetrating Lorincz’s mind once and for all.

“Mr. Engler, I’m not going to let this issue go,” Blumenthal said at the end of the hearing. “I think it goes to the heart of why we’re here, in part because these survivors were disbelieved for so long. And I just want to say for the record, I believe Kaylee Lorincz and her account.”

The entire hearing room, which was packed with dozens of Nassar survivors and their supporters, erupted in applause.

“I actually cried when he said that,” Lorincz said. “For Senator Blumenthal to sit up there and say that he stands with me, you know, turned it all around. I do have my sister survivors, and everyone else behind me has my back.”

“People tell you they don’t believe you as a survivor, too.”

Lorincz wasn’t the only person who was moved by Blumenthal’s words. It was a validating, empowering moment for all of the Nassar survivors in the building.

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“It meant a lot, because I think it goes so much deeper,” two-time Olympic champion Aly Raisman said after the hearing. “People tell you they don’t believe you as a survivor, too, and I think that him just standing up for her, it means so much for all of us. Because when I say, all of us, I mean, we’re all in this together, and when someone attacks someone else, we all feel it.”

The meeting in question took place back at the end of March. Lorincz visited Engler’s office with her mother, to sign up to speak at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting in April. Once they were there, Lorincz thought it would be a good idea to sit down with Engler for just five minutes — she thought that maybe, if she sat down with him and told her what she has been through, that it would help him understand what survivors were going through, and he would stop saying hurtful things about them in the media.

But Lorincz said that during the meeting — which ended up lasting 45 minutes — Engler kept bringing up money. “I had to continuously say that I’m not here for the money,” she recalled after the senate hearing, echoing the statements she made at the April Board of Trustees meeting when she first called out Engler for his actions. “Then he said, ‘Well, if it’s not about money, right now, if I wrote a check for $250,000, would you take it?'”

She says that in the meeting, Engler also told her that Rachael Denhollander, the first Nassar survivor to come forward publicly, met with him privately and provided him with a number for a similar individual settlement agreement, an allegation that Denhollander calls “a bald-faced lie” because she’s “never met or communicated” with Engler. Additionally, she says that in the meeting, he downplayed sexual assault and harassment allegations against Nassar’s former boss, Dean William Strampel, by calling them “just a slap on the butt.”

Engler denied all of these accusations at the senate hearing.

“So, she lied?” Blumenthal asked Engler, after Engler repeatedly disputed Lorincz’s account of the meeting.

“I’ve said publicly, we have very different recollections,” Engler responded.

Sen. Blumenthal speaks with Nassar survivor Kaylee Lorincz after the hearing. "You made me cry," she told him after she thanked him for the support. CREDIT: Lindsay Gibbs
Sen. Blumenthal speaks with Nassar survivor Kaylee Lorincz after the hearing. "You made me cry," she told him after she thanked him for the support. CREDIT: Lindsay Gibbs

It’s been an unbelievably difficult year for Nassar survivors, who have not stopped fighting for justice since they captured the world’s attention giving victim impact statements at Nassar’s sentencing hearings in January. Since then, they’ve fought for improved sexual assault legislation across the country, reached a historic settlement with MSU, been smeared by Engler and members of the MSU board of trustees, received an ESPY award, and sat through four congressional hearings about abuse in the amateur sports movement, hearings stemming from investigations that began thanks to the advocacy and bravery of Nassar survivors.

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This was the third hearing with this particular senate subcommittee. Along with Engler, USA Gymnastics President Kerry Perry, interim U.S. Olympic Comittee CEO Susanne Lyons, and Han Xiao, the Chairman of the Athletes’ Advisory Council, gave testimony.

Their testimony provided few answers. Engler, in his responses, repeatedly attempted to pivot to a discussion about reforms that are supposedly on the way at MSU. In similar fashion, Perry tried to emphasize how much she cares about survivors, and Lyons repeatedly offered up a vague promise that the USOC is “working on it.” By contrast, the senators asked direct questions throughout the hearing, demonstrating a firm understanding of the problems within each institution.

Overall, the survivors left frustrated with the lack of concrete answers, yet incredibly inspired by the hearing as a whole, thanks to the senators.

“It felt like we were heard, and our message is getting out there. And we felt, really for the first time, that we weren’t failed.” Sarah Klein, the first known Nassar victim, told ThinkProgress.

All agreed that Blumenthal’s unequivocal statement of support was a watershed moment for the hearings — and hopefully for survivors as a whole.

“You don’t often see politicians say things that are that definitive, when it comes to he-said, she-said,” survivor Jessica Howard told ThinkProgress.

“For a United States Senator to say, out loud, ‘I believe her, not you. I believe her,’ that is a message that should resonate with every single young woman who has ever been told, ‘Just forget about it. Don’t worry about it. You were just making things up.’ To have one of the most powerful people in the United States of America stand up, in a public forum, and say, ‘I believe her, the 19-year-old, amazing survivor of sexual abuse?’ Well, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

So many Nassar survivors weren’t believed when they first came forward, which is why he was able to abuse hundreds of patients over more than 25 years. Disbelief is society’s greatest silencing mechanism. That’s why Blumenthal’s words were so important — he left no room for doubt, and gave survivors everywhere hope that they, too, might be believed over a powerful authority figure.

As for Lorincz, well, this has been a journey of self discovery and finding her own voice. And she’s not done yet.

“I will not tolerate being called a liar. That is something I will never tolerate, I don’t care if it’s John Engler, I don’t care who it is,” she said. “That is something that does not sit well with me. So this fight is not over with John Engler, and we’ll see what happens at the end I guess.”