MSU Administrator Apologizes For Calling Nassar Victim’s Claims ‘Fake News’

After an internal email leaked to the public, special counsel to interim president Carol Viventi has offered an apology to Nassar survivors.

I offer my sincerest and most heartfelt apology for the letter I sent to MSU leaders after the Board meeting. I did not think about how my words would make the survivors feel. What the survivors of Larry Nassar have been through should not be experienced by anyone, and I’m sorry my words added to their pain.

 

-Carol Viventi, MSU Vice President and Special Counsel to the President

Viventi wrote in an email Wednesday to board members that Nassar survivors are "willing to make outlandish claims to raise settlement values." Viventi also went after Kaylee Lorincz, who made a statement at a recent Board of Trustees meeting where she claimed interim president John Engler offered her $250,000 to settle her lawsuit against the school. Viventi said in part that MSU did not publicly contradict her at the meeting because "survivors are quick to claim 'revictimization' or 'shaming' whenever they are falsely accusing members of the MSU community".

An attorney for many Nassar survivors including Lorincz, John Manly, was not buying Viventi's apology. Telling the Detroit Free Press:

"If anyone (at MSU) had any common sense, they would toss her out of the building posthaste. Until those people (Engler and the board) are gone, MSU won't recover from this. These people in that board room and presidential suite are tearing MSU apart in chunks."

Manly also remarked that Viventi seemed more sorry her email was discovered than she was of actually writing it.