Larry Nassar's defense attorney, Shannon Smith, expresses doubts about the number of women who have claimed they were victimized by Nassar. (3:40) 
 
 The defense attorney for convicted sexual predator Larry Nassar said she does not believe her client was capable of sexually assaulting the number of women who have accused him of doing so. 
 
 In an interview with WWJ Newsradio on Thursday morning, Shannon Smith said "there is a huge part of me that does not believe that every one of those girls was victimized by him. 
 
 "I believe that what happened, while there may be some that were victimized -- and certainly [as] a part of the plea agreement -- there are others who have come to believe they were victimized because of the way the case spun, in a way, out of control." 
 
 Smith clarified in a follow-up phone call with ESPN that she was not denying that Nassar is guilty of assaulting some women, but that the number who have come forward is "really extreme." 
 
 Shannon Smith says she doesn't believe Larry Nassar is capable of assaulting all of the girls and young women who have accused him of doing so. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 "There was no way there could have been so much," she said. "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." 
 
 Judge Janice Cunningham started Friday's hearing by addressing Smith's comments. Cunningham said it was unfortunate that Smith made those comments during the course of the sentencing hearing. She said Nassar "disavowed" Smith's comments, and that those comments weren't relevant to the hearing. 
 
 "What is relevant is for the court to hear each individual story," Cunningham said. "... I believe what each individual has and will tell me. It is their individual stories that are relevant to the proceedings." 
 
 Nassar, a former Michigan State University sports doctor and USA Gymnastics medical coordinator, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in November. The Michigan attorney general's office said Wednesday that 256 girls and young women (the number had appeared incorrectly in earlier reports as 265) have filed complaints to law enforcement saying that Nassar assaulted them. More than half of those complaints have come since Nassar's guilty plea, as awareness about the case has grown. 
 
 In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Nassar said he wasn't aware Smith was going to make these statements and he didn't authorize them. 
 
 "During a visit today with one of my lawyers, I was informed of multiple news articles that attributed quotes to Shannon Smith about her personal feelings regarding my cases. I was not aware that these statements were going to be made nor did I authorize them. As I have repeatedly said under oath, the plea agreements are accurate and I have, through my lawyers, asked that the court follow them. I have heard each and every impact statement made by the victims in my cases. 
 
 "Their words have been meaningful, they have pierced my soul and I will carry their words with me for the rest of my life. I am sorry about this distraction at a time when the attention should be on the statements of these victims," he said. 
 
 Some of the women who have provided statements say they believe the total number of girls and women who were abused by Nassar could actually be much higher that 256. Accusations against Nassar begin in the early 1990s and the in-demand doctor saw patients after regular business hours in several locations, including his office, local gymnasiums and in the basement of his home with nearly no interruptions for nearly a quarter century. 
 
 Former gymnast Madison Bonofiglio told the court Wednesday that she knows of "at least 10" other friends who have chosen not to file reports despite being abused by Nassar. She said some decided it wasn't a good time for them to do so, and others "didn't think it had happened to them enough." 
 
 "It really makes me sad that some of my best friends think that because they were only assaulted by Larry five or 10 times that wasn't enough to matter," Bonofiglio said. "I think this really matters." 
 
 Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in state prison for seven of those 10 counts last week. He was also sentenced in December to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges. Police searched Nassar's home in 2016 and discovered hard drives in his curbside trash cans that contained more than 37,000 illegal images. 
 
 Many of the women who provided impact statements during Nassar's sentencing hearings have said that they didn't realize what Nassar was doing to them was sexual in nature until they learned about his child pornography stash. Several others have said they dealt with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or other health issues for years before realizing that their appointments with Nassar were the source of those problems when they read or heard media reports about his criminal case in the past year and a half. 
 
 Smith said she believes that many of Nassar's former patients received legitimate medical treatments that included the since-decertified doctor using his hands to manipulate sensitive areas of their bodies. 
 
 "I think Larry Nassar comes off as a really great person. There is no doubt he did a lot of good for a lot of his patients," she told WWJ. 
 
 The women who say they were assaulted by Nassar cite the fact that he did not wear gloves, didn't allow other trained doctors in the room during these treatments and did not explain what he was doing as evidence that Nassar was touching them for his own sexual gratification and not in an attempt to heal. Smith called these decisions "poor judgment" by Nassar but said she doesn't believe that they indicate sexual motives. 
 
 "They may not have been as sinister as some people believe them to be," Smith told ESPN. 
 
 Despite his guilty plea, Nassar said in a letter he wrote to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina during his sentencing hearing in Ingham County earlier this month that he believes he was "a good doctor" and what he was doing was a legitimate medical procedure. 
 
 The six-page, handwritten letter was not released to the public, but Aquilina read parts of it before sentencing Nassar. In the letter, he told the judge that media reports had sensationalized his case. He said he was not sure that he was mentally equipped to sit through what ended up being seven days of victim impact statements. 
 
 Smith told ESPN that she and her co-counsel, Matthew Newburg, were not aware that Nassar was writing that letter before he sent it to the judge. 
 
 "That was a surprise to me," Smith said. "It was as much of a surprise for us as everyone else. He wrote it at a time when he was feeling particularly bad. I'm not sure that he was writing it to really profess his innocence or just to say how bad he was feeling." 
 
 Smith did not attend the final days of Nassar's hearing in Ingham County for medical reasons. She also does not plan to attend any of her client's sentencing hearing in nearby Eaton County, which started Wednesday and will likely continue until early next week. 
 
 Smith told WWJ that she imagines there will be appeals filed in Nassar's case, but she and Newburg do not intend to represent Nassar in those appeals. ||||| DETROIT (WWJ) – One of the defense attorneys for Larry Nassar is questioning whether some of the 265 women who say they were molested by the former sports doctor were actually assaulted. 
 
 Speaking exclusively to WWJ Newsradio 950, Attorney Shannon Smith said a “huge part” of her does not believe all the women and girls who have come forward were abused by Nassar. 
 
 “There were girls who had perfectly normal lives that never questioned the medical treatment done by Larry Nassar — and there is a legitimate medical treatment that involves touching sensitive areas and even penetrations,” Smith told WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton. “Some of those girls, to be quite frank, they didn’t even know what to think because they never felt victimized. He was never inappropriate to them. And because of everything they’ve seen, they just feel like they must have been victimized. And I think that’s really unfortunate.” 
 
 Smith, who has been with Nassar since the beginning, believes some accusers were influenced by the way the case “spun out of control” in the media. During some statements, which were televised and widely broadcast online, victims discussed the psychological scars from Nassar’s abuse — depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, trouble being around male teachers and other men and fractured relationships with family. 
 
 “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. I just can’t imagine that’s true,” she said. “As much as they were allowed to speak at sentencing, and that was something we agreed to, even during the sentencing, more and more people were coming forward thinking ‘I was fine my whole life and now all of a sudden I have realized I was a survivor.’ I think that’s really sad.” 
 
 Nassar, 54, worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, the governing body that also trains Olympians. He was sentenced last week to 40 to 175 years in prison following a seven-day hearing where more than 150 victim impact statements were given. He was also sentenced in December to 60 years in federal prison for possessing thousands of images of child pornography. Right now, he’s in the midst of a third sentencing hearing for molesting three gymnasts at an elite club run by an Olympic coach. 
 
 Despite pleading guilty to assaulting girls and women under the guise of medical treatment — penetrating them with his ungloved hands when he was supposed to be treating them for injuries — Nassar is still a good person in Smith’s eyes. 
 
 “I think Larry Nassar comes off as a really great person. There is no doubt he did a lot of good for a lot of his patients,” she said. “While people are criticizing the techniques he used, there is undeniably proof that those techniques would take a girl who came into his office unable to walk and fix her in a way that she was able to compete the next day. So, I see good in Larry Nassar.” 
 
 Although she believes Nassar was performing legitimate medical treatments, Smith said it was ultimately Nassar’s decision to accept a plea agreement. 
 
 “We had some issues in the case,” she said. “And there was also a lot of child pornography that could not be refuted. There’s facts and information that I would never share with the public, nor could I share with the public, and so at the end of the day it was really his decision.” 
 
 Smith said it was not only easy for her to represent Nassar, but an important duty as an American citizen. 
 
 “My job is absolutely not to question my clients’ behaviors or things that have happened. My job is to make sure the process is fair and to make sure they’re getting a defense. Everyone is entitled to a defense under the constitution,” she said. “I have no problem representing somebody like Larry Nassar. I actually feel like I get energized from the fact that other people don’t understand and don’t appreciate what our constitution is about.” 
 
 Smith has actually received multiple death threats, with an untold number of ugly phone calls and hate mail by the bushel. She understands the resentment, given the heinous crimes, but she’s only doing her job to provide legal representation. 
 
 “At first I’m terrified but then when I realize the people are actually far away, it’s very obvious they have no education and I can’t imaging the resources to come to Michigan to get me, but it’s certainly been scary,” she said. “I look into each one and I have taken some of them over to police.” 
 
 It’s easy for the public to judge Nassar and how they handled the case, Smith said, but those opinions mean nothing to her. 
 
 “When you are not a lawyer on the case seeing the evidence, it’s really easy to Monday morning quarterback,” she said. “When I see the opinions coming in on Nassar’s criminal case, I almost laugh sometimes and wonder if they were in the same courtroom as me. And it’s because there is so much evidence that the general public does not have access to.” 
 
 At the end of the day, Smith said the case should serve as an important warning for doctors to think seriously about protecting themselves, because they could one day be in Nassar’s shoes. 
 
 “All doctors, while it is not illegal to see a patient without a chaperone in the room, should have a chaperone in the room. I have learned that while it is not illegal to touch someone with an ungloved hand, patients expect gloves and if you’re not going to use gloves you need to explain that,” she said. “I would encourage them to write the techniques down on paper and have clients sign explicit forms that they were advised of what the treatment would be like, they were advised of how they would be touched and that they understood it and consented to it. … By doing that, I believe it would protect patients from being victimized and also protect doctors from false allegations.” ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Tracy Connor 
 
 Disgraced gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar is disavowing comments from one of his attorneys, who said "a huge part" of her does not believe everyone who testified against him was molested. 
 
 In an interview with a Detroit radio station that is sure to stir outrage, defense attorney Shannon Smith suggested that some of 150-plus girls and women who gave impact statements against Nassar actually received legitimate medical treatment. 
 
 "There is a huge part of me that does not believe that every one of those girls was victimized by him," Smith told WWJ950 radio. 
 
 "While there may be some that were victimized ... there are others that have come to believe they were victimized because of the way the case, in a way, spun out of control," she added. 
 
 Her comments are already drawing ire from some of Nassar's accusers and their attorney, John Manly, who told NBC News that Smith "is a vile human being for saying that." 
 
 And even Nassar himself distanced himself, saying he did not authorize them, stands by his guilty pleas and has been deeply affected by the victim statements. 
 
 "I have heard each and every impact statement made by the victims in my cases," he said in a statement released by another attorney. "Their words have been meaningful, they have pierced my soul and I will carry their words with me for the rest of my life. I am sorry about this distraction at a time when the attention should be on the statements of these victims." 
 
 After Nassar was first publicly accused of penetrating female patients with ungloved hands, his attorneys said it was part of a recognized medical technique used by osteopathic physicians. Many who knew him as a respected sports medicine specialist at Michigan State University and the team doctor for USA Gymnastics defended him. 
 
 Then the FBI found child pornography — tens of thousands of images — on computers Nassar tried to trash. He pleaded guilty to possession of them and then pleaded guilty in two Michigan counties to sexually abusing 10 girls, nine of them under the guise of medical treatment. 
 
 The procedure used on the victims in the cases where Nassar pleaded guilty has been described identically by the other accusers, who cases stretch back over two decades. 
 
 Over the course of the 16-month scandal, the number of accusers has swelled from two to 265, with some saying they were in denial that they had been molested until they heard other women describe what Nassar had done to them. 
 
 In the interview, Smith seized on that. 
 
 "There were girls who had perfectly normal lives that never questioned the medical treatment done by Larry Nassar — and there is a legitimate medical treatment that involves touching sensitive areas and even penetrations," she said. 
 
 "Some of those girls, to be quite frank, they didn’t even know what to think because they never felt victimized. He was never inappropriate to them. And because of everything they’ve seen, they just feel like they must have been victimized. And I think that’s really unfortunate." 
 
 Larry Nassar speaks to his attorney Shannon Smith during his sentencing hearing in Lansing, Michigan, on Jan. 18. Brendan McDermid / Reuters 
 
 "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," she added. "I just can’t imagine that’s true." 
 
 Some of the girls' parents have said Nassar positioned himself in such a way that they could not see he was penetrating them. Other girls have said that Nassar repeatedly gave them his "treatment" without a parent or another medical professional in the room. 
 
 Manly, the victims' lawyer, said Smith's spin was a belated attempt to minimize the damage done by Nassar after the public statements by his former patients — including Olympic gymnasts — captured the nation's attention. 
 
 "When people like this speak, I'm always gratified because it shows how evil they truly are," Manly said. "The awful thing is it revictimizes these women and their families and I think that’s what it was meant to do." 
 
 He said that while Nassar was entitled to a robust defense, if Smith believes he isn't guilty she should have taken the case to trial. 
 
 As part of his plea agreements, Nassar agreed to let any accuser give a victim impact statement, though he then complained to one judge that it was too difficult for him. 
 
 And before his statement reacting to Smith's comments, he had written in a letter to the judge that his contact with the accusers was medical and not sexual and that the pornography could have been downloaded by someone else. 
 
 He was sentenced last week in Ingham County to 40 to 175 years and faces a similar sentence when victims are done giving statements in Eaton County. 
 
 Smith said she has received death threats for defending Nassar but has no regrets. 
 
 "I have no problem representing someone like Larry Nassar," she said.
– The dozens of victims who spoke at Larry Nassar's sentencing hearing earlier this month served up scathing rebukes against the ex-USA Gymnastics doctor, who received up to 175 years in prison for his crimes. One person not as moved by their testimony: a Nassar defense attorney, who said during a Thursday radio interview that his case had "spun out of control" in the media. "There were girls who had perfectly normal lives that never questioned the medical treatment done by Larry Nassar—and there is a legitimate medical treatment that involves touching sensitive areas and even penetrations," Shannon Smith said to WWJ Newsradio 950. Smith added that girls who'd never been previously victimized may have picked up on reporting about Nassar and felt they, too, had been victimized. She also praised Nassar's medical skills and said he "comes off as a really great person" and that "I see good" in him for helping athletes get back to competing. "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," she said, adding it's "really sad" when accusers were "fine" their whole lives and suddenly "realized" they'd been abused. An attorney for some of the victims calls Smith's statements "vile," and even Nassar himself "distanced himself" from them, per NBC News. "I am sorry about this distraction at a time when the attention should be on the statements of these victims," he said in a statement issued by another attorney. In a call later Thursday, Smith told ESPN she doesn't deny Nassar's guilt in some cases, but that the number of accusers was "really extreme." She says she's received death threats for representing Nassar as his lawyer and added "chaperones" should be in the room when doctors see patients to protect both parties.