Ex-Penn State President’s Lawyer Slams Freeh Report

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A lawyer representing former Penn State President Graham Spanier claims that the report compiled by FBI director Louis Freeh accusing Spanier and other officials of covering up child sex abuse was a “blundering and indefensible indictment” and a “flat-out distortion of facts.”

Tim Lewis, Spanier’s lawyer, called Freeh a “biased investigator” who was “looking through hindsight,” USA Today reports. He also claimed that Spanier had minimal involvement in complaints made against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, and that he did not know they were sexual in nature.

While Spainer has not been charged with a crime, two other school officials have been charged with perjury and failure to report abuse, ABC News reports. The Freeh report refers to E-mails to and from Spainer in which he agrees not to inform authorities of Sandusky’s misconduct, but to get him “professional help.”

Lewis insisted that Spainer, as a victim of child abuse himself and an expert family therapist, would have reported the crimes if he had known they involved a serious sexual assault.

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