Among the "embarrassing information" were communications during which university officials criticized prosecutors of the case, discussed a game-plan for a U.S. Senate hearing relating to the scandal, and corresponded on how to spin the situation to donors and members of the media. 

Nessel also said the documents revealed former MSU President Lou Anna Simon routinely deleted text messages relevant to the university’s handling of Nassar, before she was advised by general counsel against doing so in 2018.

Nessel argued MSU improperly withheld the documents for years. The university wrongly cited attorney client privilege as the reasons the documents shouldn’t be released, which "unnecessarily prolonged hope" for Nassar survivors who had expected the release to further accountability. 

MSU has disputed Nessel’s claims that the university didn’t cooperate with the investigation and inappropriately applied attorney-client privilege in withholding the documents.

“Throughout the course of the investigation, MSU has fully complied with the attorney general’s office and has provided more than 100,000 documents related to facts surrounding the entirety of the case,” said university spokesperson Emily Guerrant in a statement. “The university maintains that our interpretation and application of the attorney-client privilege was appropriate, as determined by East Lansing District Court Judge Richard Ball in 2019.”

Ball was asked by the university to review the documents it was withholding and determine if the university was within its legal right to do so under attorney-client privilege.

MSU was "so tenacious in withholding these documents" that Nessel was "surprised" the documents didn’t contain more incriminating information.

"We can’t make whole the lives of people who were torn apart as a result of not just Larry Nassar, but the failures of Michigan State University," Nessel said. "But I can tell you that we tried our hardest to do as much as we can with the information we had."

The Attorney General’s office plans to set up a portal on its website that will allow any member of the public to view all of the documents reviewed in the investigation.

Nessel did not provide a timeline of when the online portal would be available.

"With over 550,000 digital pages and an untold number of paper documents that need to be reviewed and redacted and made accessible, this is a process that can take a little bit of time," she said.

For survivors, advocacy continues 

Nessel commended survivors of Nassar’s abuse for their activism, and said they catalyzed a broader cultural reckoning about how sexual abuse should be addressed and understood.

"These survivors will be admired by many for years, decades to come," she said. "We’ll remember what happened here, not just because of the horrific accounts of Larry Nassar and others, but because of how the survivors banded together, and made substantive change all over the country."

For the Sister Survivors, Nessel’s closing of the investigation doesn’t put an end to their advocacy.

Kaylee Lorincz, a Sister Survivor, said she was thankful for the Attorney General office’s work on the investigation, but was frustrated by the delays caused by the university.

She called for another independent investigation into the “ethics and conduct” of MSU officials.

“The case can be closed, but Michigan State is not perfect,” Lorincz said. “Michigan State has not put the steps in to prevent this from happening again.”

Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual misconduct, is also calling for an investigation of "the failures in culture, policy and structure" at MSU that allowed Nassar to continue his abuse.

An independent investigation would also provide concrete steps toward meaningful institutional change — something Denhollander said is still needed at MSU.

"Absent accurate diagnostics, full transparency, and genuine accountability in reform, these dynamics have and will continue," Denhollander wrote in a statement posted to social media Wednesday afternoon.

Melissa Brown Hudecz, another Sister Survivor, said survivors will continue trying to improve how MSU handles sexual violence.

“Our goal continues to be that we make MSU a safer place for students in the future,” she said. “We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting there.”

MSU spokesperson Guerrant said “the university has taken significant steps to improve campus safety and culture through robust prevention, support, and response efforts.”

“We are working to become a more accountable organization each day, guided by an unwavering commitment to providing a safe campus and equitable environment for all," Guerrant said. "We echo the attorney general’s comments in acknowledging the role survivors have made in advocating for change and improvements surrounding assault and abuse in our state and globally.”

Fight over documents' release

Nessel closed her investigation into MSU’s handling of Nassar in 2021 because of the university’s lack of cooperation. 

But in 2023, with the election of new board members who voiced support for releasing the documents, Nessel reopened her investigation into "how and why the university failed to protect students" from Nassar’s abuse for so long. 

The university defended its withholding of the documents at the time, claiming it was barred from releasing them because of legal disagreements with the university’s insurers regarding a $500 million settlement to Nassar survivors. 

The insurers contended that MSU’s failure to act on reports of Nassar’s abuse left the university outside its own policies and, therefore, responsible for paying the settlement, according to court filings. 

Trustee Renee Knake Jefferson also argued in 2020 that release was unnecessary because the documents didn’t contain any new information about the administration's handling of Nassar. Jefferson was the only board member to have read the documents. 

In December of 2023, after those legal disagreements had all been settled, MSU’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to send those documents to Nessel’s office. 

The university’s decision to release the documents followed years of advocacy from survivors. POSSE, a group for parents of Sister Survivors, filed a lawsuit in July 2023 arguing the board’s discussions around withholding the documents were made in private and therefore violated the state’s Open Meetings Act, but dropped it once the board voted to release the documents.

The documents include email and text communications to and from 20 MSU leaders and employees, records of internal complaints and investigations regarding Nassar, and personnel files of those who worked with and above Nassar during his time at MSU.