Ex-PSU president files defamation suit over Sandusky report
Former Penn State president Graham Spanier has filed a defamation lawsuit accusing former FBI director Louis Freeh of scapegoating him in Freeh’s scathing report on the Jerry Sandusky case.
The long-promised lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses Freeh of damaging Spanier’s reputation through the report prepared for Penn State trustees in 2012.
The Freeh report faults Spanier and other school leaders for allegedly covering up reports that the longtime assistant football coach abused children.
Spanier lawyer Libby Locke calls the Freeh report “a public relations product” that “scapegoated” Spanier, then-football coach Joe Paterno and others.
Spanier and two other former school officials are awaiting a criminal trial over their handling of the abuse complaints.
Sandusky is in prison after his 2012 conviction for sexually abusing 10 children.
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