Angelina Jolie is in awe of some of the United States gymnasts. The 46-year-old actress and activist took to Instagram on Thursday to share a photo with the gymnasts who were on Capitol Hill this week to testify in a Senate hearing about the FBI’s handling of the Larry Nassar investigation.
Nassar is the former Team USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor, who, in 2018, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison after more than 150 women accused him of sexual misconduct.
In the pic, Jolie posed with gymnasts Maggie Nichols, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman, all of whom, along with Simone Biles, who was not pictured, testified this week.
Also in the photo was Jessica Howard, a former gymnast who attended the hearing, and Kaylee Lorincz, who testified about her experience with Nassar at Michigan State University.
“I was honored to meet with some of the brave U.S. gymnasts who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday,” she wrote. “I’m in awe of their courage and commitment to preventing future failures to investigate abuse.”
“As Aly Raisman said in her testimony, ‘Over 100 victims could have been spared the abuse. All we needed was one adult to do the right thing,'” Jolie continued. “Sending support and respect to them, and to all who are reliving this trauma so that system reforms can occur.”
Jolie was on Capitol Hill at the same time as the gymnasts, as she was “engaging with Senators on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization and FBI reforms, including better protections for abused children, non-biased forensic evidence collection, trauma care, and judicial training.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the FBI’s mishandling of the Nassar investigation came after the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded earlier this year that FBI employees botched the investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of gymnasts by Nassar in 2015 and 2016.
“I believe without a doubt that the circumstances that led to my abuse and allowed it to continue are directly the result of the fact that the organizations created by Congress to oversee and protect me as an athlete, USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committees failed to do their jobs,” Biles said during her testimony.
