Larry Nassar's Attorney: 'A Huge Part of Me' Doubts Every Accuser Was Abused

The Michigan attorney general's office recently confirmed former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar has been accused of sexual assault by 256 women and girls in total. However, his defense attorney believes this number has been exaggerated.

"A huge part of me that doesn't believe every one of those girls was victimized by him," Shannon Smith said Thursday in an interview with WWJ Radio.

"There was no way there could have been so much," she added to ESPN's Dan Murphy, who corroborated the final number of accusers with the attorney general's office. "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."

Nassar pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, but more accusers came forward during the sentencing hearing. A total of 156 women and girls spoke, including Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Aly Raisman.

Rachel Denhollander and another woman were the first to publicly accuse Nassar in 2016. They said the abuse started in the 1990s. 

Nassar received a further 40-175 years in prison at the hearing after being sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges a month earlier.

As the team doctor for USA Gymnastics since 1996, plus his full-time role at Michigan State, Nassar would have had contact with hundreds of patients over the last 20 years.

Smith elaborated on her doubts over the number of victims on WWJ Radio, though:

"I have a very hard time believing that my client could have even possibly assaulted that many people day in and day out in front of their parents, and that every single one of those things was a crime, but he was such a manipulator he got away with it," the attorney said. "I just can't imagine that’s true."