Larry Nassar is ‘really great guy,’ some accusers lying: lawyer

NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Post

February 1, 2018

By Gabrielle Fonrouge

The defense attorney for disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar said she doesn’t believe that her client could have sexually assaulted all 256 of his accusers.

“There’s a huge part of me that doesn’t believe every one of those girls was victimized by him,” Shannon Smith said in an interview with WWJ News during a morning broadcast.

She later clarified that she’s not denying he’s guilty of assaulting some women but believes the number that has come forward is “really extreme.”

“There was no way there could have been so much,” she said.

“Larry would have to have been doing this all day, every day with no one catching on. This is a guy who put child pornography in a trash can. He’s not a savvy guy.”

She went on to say she believes many of Nassar’s former patients received legitimate medical treatments from the doctor, who used his hands to manipulate sensitive areas of their bodies.

“I think Larry Nassar comes off as a really great person. There is no doubt he did a lot of good for a lot of his patients,” Smith said.

She believes the attention Nassar’s case received is what’s causing former patients to come forward with feelings they’d been assaulted too.

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