Former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State athletics physician Larry Nassar was charged Wednesday with 22 counts of criminal sexual conduct, each of which carries a potential sentence of life in prison.

Among the charges filed by Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette are five counts of sexual conduct with victims who were under the age of 13 at the time of the alleged act.

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"At the time, Victim A did not question Nassar because he was doing the same to other gymnasts she knew," the affidavit reads. "Victim A stated that because she was so young, she really didn’t know anything was wrong."

The charges and affidavits claim Nassar sexually assaulted the girls, often under the guise of massage treatments, at both a treatment room in his home and in medical offices he kept at Michigan State and a local gymnastics club.

"Dr. Nassar preyed on these young girls, he used his status and authority to engage in horrid sexual assaults under the guise of medical procedures. He violated the oath that every doctor takes to do no harm," Schuette . "The girls abused by Dr. Nassar were so young, so innocent that they didn’t fully understand what Nassar was doing to them until many years later. We have a duty to protect our children, and that’s what we are doing today."

BREAKING: MSU Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar charged with 22 new counts of sexual assault from MI Attorney General
— Shelley Childers (@ShelleyChilders)

Nassar already is facing two federal child pornography charges filed in December after law enforcement officials said he "possessed thousands of images of child pornography" and attempted to destroy a hard drive containing pornographic images.